The Trips Have All Graduated
Buds, Yessa, and I were so glad to head to Virginia to celebrate Bets and Katoots graduating from high school. They had their reception the day before the commencement, so we drove down on a Sunday.
Buster and Monkey stayed behind to be on pet duty.
We had planned to stop to see some relatives in Baltimore, but they needed to cancel, so we thought we had ample time on our drive. We decided to stop in Corning, NY, home of the Glass Museum. We didn't have time to tour the museum, but the main street downtown enchanted us and we look forward to going back.
Totally not staged pictures above. 😁
A highlight was a delicious slice of focaccia with a balsamic onion glaze.
It turned out, as we left Corning further and further behind, and got closer and closer to Virginia, we did not have all the extra time we expected to have on the drive. The goal had been to arrive at the graduation open house around 3 p.m., but we ran into one of the D.C. speciality worm holes where the GPS stayed at the same amount of time no matter how close we seemed to be getting to our destination. We drove at "34 minutes until arrival" for a very long time.
But when we did finally arrive around 4:30 p.m.; what a delight. We hopped out of the car and when Bets saw us she said, "My social battery is so drained; I'm so glad to see you." It was among my most favorite compliments ever.
The house was a joyful explosion of people who love Kate and Betty, pictures of their accomplishments and them across the ages, delicious food, and lots of laughter and conversation.
We stayed at a hotel right down the road, which made it easy to see all of our loved ones in the area.
Yessa stayed overnight with Kate and Bets, and the day of graduation they went out for a breakfast of açia bowls. I walked with Jenny in the morning, and while Buds worked I read and wrote, then impressed the heck out of him by guessing correctly what he would have ordered off the menu at the Mexican restaurant where I ran out to to get us lunch.
Paula did a great job organizing where we should all plan to sit in order to be together at the graduation ceremony since it was in an arena suited to a class of 500 graduates. (Fun fact, the arena where we were does 3 graduations on some days, so we had a time line we knew would be followed, and this graduation was well organized!)
So easy to find them when they are seated in alphabetical order and side by side.
They walked back out so they could walk back in with for the official procession.
What a joy to cheer for these two we love so much.
I am always glad to see Gisella. She was Betty and Kate's nanny and she and I met at PlaygroUUp, which led to our families meeting. So grateful for Gisella.
Bless Paula, she made sure to catch a shot of The Trips all together in their gowns.
After graduation, Buds and I ran to see some friends while Yessa stayed with Kel and Paula to grab some sushi for dinner.
Paula and Betty and Kate had an all-night graduation party, so we had planned for breakfast with Kel before we left town on Tuesday morning. We were delighted when Bets woke up in time to join us, too.
Both the girls chose to attend VA Tech next year, and we're looking forward to hearing about their next set of adventures.
Congratulations, Loved Ones.
