B & A

The Graduation weekend was so perfect!!

Brody worked so hard, for so long for this day. I am so lucky to have a husband who always made school a priority in his life and was so self driven to finish---it was important enough to him that he worked hard to get it done even while he was working a great full time career at the same time. He always did school cheerfully, and to the very best of his abilities. As a wife, what more could you want? It was so much fun for me to plan a weekend to celebrate my hardworking man, he really deserved it (and more)! It was so fun to witness how proud his family (and mine) was of him. It was an amazing weekend all around! And we loved so much the time we got to spend with Brody's family, who we don't get to see as much as we would like since they live in AZ. We had a blast visiting with them this weekend & are so grateful they made the trip out to be a part of his day with him. It wouldn't have been the same without them! : )

I had a couple nightmares before Graduation that I only got a couple of photos, and they weren't good ones. I LOVE photos, and by the post below you will see that my nightmare didn't come true....I got plenty of photos, and plenty of them are in this post! I couldn't help but to add most of my favorites!

Enjoy the worlds longest post!! : )

Pre Graduation Photos

We wanted to do some photos of Brody and some that maybe we could use for Christmas cards....and just to have. : ) We had a lot of fun, and here are a few of our favorites from the day!

This one is my top favorite of him from this day : )

Graduation Day

Graduation day was amazing! We got up early and went out for our favorite bagels, and then came home, got ready and headed out to Long Beach State. We parked by the pyramid and took a shuttle to the other side of campus to where the Graduation was being held. : )

Brody filling out his reader card : )

Before shots--Pre Grad : )

The flower leis we got for our Grad!!

This little pup had his own graduation cap

The day before I got a mani/pedi and had my toes done in the school colors!

Go Beach! : )

My handsome grad walking in!

I was so excited when I spotted him!

After he walked. The guy who read the names sounded like the guy who does movie trailers, it was awesome! :)

Whooooo hooooo!!! HE DID IT!!

I teared up many times that day---and giving him a hug after he received his diploma, this was the first one of them!! : )

AD giving him a hug

See all the confetti on the ground? They throw it on the grads as they walked in.

Everyone proudly taking photos of Brody : )

Whooo Hooo!!!

The proud parents with their college Grad!

Payday for raising such a great son! : )

My parents and Brody

Whooo Hooo!!

Proud Mom holding the "diploma"

Taking our normal shot. haha

I love this pic : )

Brody under the sign marker for the miles to Paris

AD seeing her near future : )

Brody was wondering if he would see anyone he knew....and he found someone!

Brody and AD

The group chatting before heading to dinner

(Can you spot the hat?)

Graduation Dinner at Duke's

After we left the University we headed to Huntington Beach to Duke's for a nice dinner with family and friends!! It was amazing! We had a beautiful veiw of the beach, and it was early enough that really no one (but some other graduation groups, in other rooms) else was there besides us. : )

I went in early and set up the table with Graduation caps filled with See's Candy for the guests to take home with them.

Doug Owen, who we love (he was our Bishop when Brody and I were getting married), and Gabby (who is a doll and so much fun to have with us!)!

I gave our server these cute Graduation caps to have put on the Hula Pies when they came out to the table! It was so much fun to have festive touches to make the day that much more fun! : )

We had such a great group of people for dinner! It was just perfect and so much fun!

Some of my Graduation themed "jewelry" for the day : )

This cute light-up ring I wore to Disneyland

After Party at Disneyland

After dinner we jetted off to Disneyland and met up with the Money's. They were waiting just outside the park with this cute Mickey Graduation cap (and they had Brody's name put on it), and a "Just Graduated" pin! That was so very nice of them, and we are so glad they were able to meet up with us for a short time at the park. : )

As we walked into the park, this guy handed Margot three Fast Passes to Space Mountain (a ride we all wanted to go on), and the cast member signed one of them to let the additional 3 people tag onto the 3 passes given to us! Which was great, because the wait was 50mins, and we only waited maybe 15mins! : )

We had an amazing day with amazing people!! The whole day could not have gone better!!

Graduation Get-a-way

Friday we got up and met Brody's parents for a fun breakfast, then took a much needed nap (from the loooong day before), and then met back up with them for dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. It was SO fun having Brody's parents in town, we really enjoyed spending so much needed time with them! : )

After dinner we drove up the coast to Huntington Beach and checked into a beautiful hotel, my Graduation present to Brody; time for a little R&R! And it was everything we wanted it to be. When we checked in, the guy at the desk asked us if we were staying here for any special reason, and Brody explained that he just Graduated College the day before and we were here to celebrate. The guy congratulated Brody on his accomplishment, upgraded our room and gave use a full ocean view, S'mores vouchers and breakfast vouchers!! We were SO excited! That was a big upgrade!

Brody relaxing and looking over our room service breakfast menu : )

After watching the sun go down, we went down to explore this hotel that was more like a little city!

At one of the pools they were playing 'Cars', and there were people floating in the pool watching it.

The S'mores kit they gave us! : )

Roasting our marshmallows

Our amazing room service breakfast! It was SO SO good!

We took it out and ate it on our balcony overlooking the beach!

It was so wonderful!!

(Oh, in our Hyatt bathrobes too. haha. they were so warm and comfy!)

The hotel had this great bridge that takes you right over to the beach....so we went on a nice beach walk. : )

It was such a beautiful day!

(and sunny too, and as you can see, Brody forgot his sunglasses in the car)

More exploring the hotel grounds. It was SO pretty, we felt like we were in Hawaii!

Here is a shot of the onsite shops and reasturants. It was like a little mall right there at the hotel. We loved it!

After some walking around it was time to hit the pool and have some lunch! We found this great spot by this waterfall that was kind of away from the crowd. : )