Perfect Weekend

As I knew it would be, we had the perfect weekend (and in case any of you who read my last post were wondering, I was right, it was a great transition to Albuquerque for my parents).

I’m not a huge fan of re-cap posts, but I got a new camera and have to share some of the images. Plus, this weekend really was pretty epic.

Friday: Patrick graduated from medical school. His graduation was really nice, tasteful, relatively short, and pretty entertaining. Who knew that a “hooding ceremony” could be so darn entertaining. You would think that by the time they got to the letter “S” in the alphabet that people would have seen all the ways not to hood a graduate, yet, one of the most terribly botched hoodings happened to a poor (now) doctor who’s last name started with an “S.” (If you’re not familiar with the hooding part of graduation, you can search on YouTube and find lots of videos. It’s sort of silly, but apparently a very long standing and prestigious tradition.) I actually have a total of 0 photos of the  graduation/hooding ceremony. Sorry folks, but when you’re sitting 30 rows back, the only thing you can really see through a camera lens is blurry shapes, boring. I did, however, discover that Rylan does indeed look quite a lot like his father. When being far away causes big men to become blurry, they look like their infant sons…who knew?

See that weird thing around his neck (not the purty rope that signifies a super awesome honor society, the other thing that looks like it’s choking him), that’s the hood. Funny story, the UNM bookstore didn’t order all the hoods on time so he actually had to borrow a hood!

After the graduation we had some “light refreshments” (a few pieces of melon and some ice water) and went on our merry way. We spent the afternoon at Patrick’s dads house enjoying some tasty ribs and great company.

Patrick’s sister and boyfriend flew in Friday night. Thank you, tornadoes in Dallas and crap ass airlines, for making them miss graduation. We always have great fun catching up when they stay with us and got to bed way too late.

Aren’t they cute? We were so glad when they finally made it here!

Saturday: We woke up to feed the munchkins around 5:30 or 6:00, and by some miracle, the little man went back to sleep without doing his usual thrashing around, and we slept until 9:00!!! Patrick made a fantastic breakfast and we spent the morning just hanging out in our PJ’s.

Saturday afternoon we dropped the kiddos off with the family and headed out to a graduation party where Patrick and another brand spankin’ new doctor went undefeated in corn hole. That’s what 4 years of med school will get you, a corn hole champ.

And…We always have great fun catching with Patrick’s sister and her boyfriend up when they stay with us and got to bed way too late.

Oh, and I made some yogurt in the middle of the night.

Sunday: We were up bright and early. I started the day off by making granola, one of my very favorite things to make (don’t worry, it will be my next Hipster, Amish, or Poor post/recipe share). The whole house smelled like Cinnabon, and the look of disappointment on my sister-in-law’s face when she found out I wasn’t baking cinnamon rolls exactly 3 hours before co-hosting a party for 40 people was priceless. She wanted those cinnamon rolls, sadly, I think the nearest Cinnabon (which is the kind of cinnamon rolls she wanted), is in the Phoenix airport. Sorry, no dice sissy.

My brother and sister in law who live down the street were kind enough to host Patrick’s graduation party since our yard looks like a mix between the Sahara and a landfill, and our house is covered in vomit soaked rags and onesies. We had a lovely mimosa bar, a bloody mary bar, and my dad took charge of the gridle and made bacon, eggs, and pancakes for about 40 people. We had granola, yogurt, fruit, bread, and all the usual odds and ends that make a New Mexican breakfast (red chile, green chile, cheese, tortillas…just because). I cried my way through a few toasts, one to Patrick, one to the party hosts, and one to all the amazing mothers (since it was mother’s day!) who have been so supportive over the past 5 months or so. The food and company were amazing. The wind sucked, or blew I guess, but we had a great time anyway.

Mimosa bar. Yum.

Gilligan Family!

Gilligan/Rice Family.

Rylan with his uncle, wearing “matching” shirts. Uncle Chad was pretty dissapointed that his was not a onesie like Rylan’s. 

Home made bread. Yum.

Fruit, in case you’ve never seen fruit, I thought this caption might help you out. 

Apparently my brother and sister in law do not own a pepper shaker or grinder, just the mortar and pestle for grinding your own pepper, it was quite the topic of conversation. 

Bloody Mary fixings.

Bacon.

Granola.

Hey! That’s my family!

Clearly, Patrick and Rylan are enjoying the party.

Obligatory super cute niece pic. Love this little cutie!

Me and my girl!

Patrick fell asleep on the couch with Neala, who had clearly had one too many mimosa’s, and I had a nice nap with Rylan. All that partying is exhausting!!

Looks like it’s nap 30 folks.

And…We always have great fun catching with Patrick’s sister and her boyfriend up when they stay with us and got to bed way too late.

After spending the morning trying to get the kids to realize what a good idea it is to sleep in, we wrapped up our weekend with a few loads of laundry, completed by the mother in law, and a lovely walk in the cool morning to the neighborhood coffee shop for my standard decaf soy latte. Yum.

Please, small boy, go back to sleep!

Fine, no sleep, then let’s walk to the coffee shop with Auntie Johanna.

And…I’m spent. Weekend over. Happy Monday folks!