A Graduation Celebration

Our graduation weekend was such a blast so I thought I would share with you what we did and some picture collages. We had such a wonderful time celebrating all the work that we accomplished in seminary! Being the planner that I am I spent a lot of time putting together plans for many family and friends to arrive to celebrate with us. I may or may not have printed off itineraries for everyone. I wanted to make sure that everyone felt comfortable and welcomed into our life even though we were not able to host everyone in our home. Thankfully, we had 2 different family friends who opened up their home and hosted most of Drew's family and my family. We had many fun St. Louis events planned like the zoo, city museum, and lunch in the loop.

Drew and I had the privilege of giving our testimony at the baccalaureate service on Thursday night, and it was such a blessing to be able to testify with our friends and before our friends about God's faithfulness in our lives throughout seminary! Here are some pics from the evening of baccalaureate. Oh yeah, the after party was at the Scottish Arms for some delicious drinks!

Graduation evening was so much fun! Though I laugh at the fact that I spent so much time looking for a graduation dress for the special occasion and it didn't matter because I was in my robes the whole time...oh well! And WOW are those robes hot! It was so fun to be able to walk across the stage twice. I was really nervous the first time, but felt much more at ease when it came time for the second walk. Drew and I were able to walk together and be hooded together for the counseling degree, and I loved being able to cheer for my husband as he received his Mdiv. It was awesome to look over and see Drew's brothers standing up and cheering for us and waving light sabers as our names were called. It made us both feel very special!

On Saturday we had a HUGE open house party and again we felt so loved by all the people that came to celebrate with us and showered us with love and gifts. We also made ice cream out of liquid nitrogen. Oh, we know how to party! After the party we went out to Schlafly Bottleworks for dinner.

Most of our friends and family left on Sunday, but Drew's brother Kip and his wife Beth and our niece Lucy were able to stay for three extra days. We had such a blast with them exploring St. Louis, playing games, laughing, and talking about life! It was so much fun to hang out with Lucy and get to know her better. I would say we have the cutest niece in the world!

It was a wonderful graduation celebration and we felt so loved and celebrated the whole weekend!

I will leave you with Drew's favorite picture from the weekend. I think it represents well our success in seminary. Let's be honest I did get better grades then him! :)

-Lindsey