A couple weeks, Casey graduated with his Masters Degree in Economics from Cal State LA. He has worked hard over the past two years, keeping his full-time career during the day and then heading to class at night and we truly are proud of him. He'll tell you that he got as much of a degree in Econ as he did in "how to jump through administrative hoops". Let's just say that Cal State LA is the DMV of colleges. And thus I'm even more proud of him for sticking with it, even when he was completely frustrated with his academic counsel. Here's to you Master Casey!
It was an early morning getting out of the house at 7am with both kids. But for the most part, they were really good sports. Having both sets of grandparents there was a huge help....and provided great conversation while we patiently waited for thousands of students to walk up, shake hands, and walk off with an (empty) diploma case.
Owen either sat on Grandpa Willard's lap or climbed on as many folding chairs as he could:
On the drive there, I had told Lucy, "we're going to Dad's graduation at his school! And he'll be wearing a black hat and black dress." So when we got there, all she wanted was to see her dad in his black dress. I kept telling her we had to wait till the graduation was over and she wasn't thrilled about that....
Finally, Casey's big moment arrived. I was able to walk down to the front for a few minutes to snap photos.
Standing with some class mates:
Ready to walk up, hood draped over his arm:
Of course we knew there'd be a picture like this, right? Fah-feddy, fah-fah
One of the professors, hooding the graduates:
A misplaced Renaissance festival-er (seriously, who comes up with these designs?)
And.....it's official! He has the hood. It happened. He did it.
Walking away, hopefully feeling a little more accomplished and a little heavier with all that clothing on.
Congratulations! 
Our little family:
And our bigger family with Casey's parents on the left and my parents on the right:
Parry, Casey, and Linda:
Us getting kicked out of the stadium for being the last ones standing around, taking pictures:
And these were just too cute and funny. Gram and Owen....
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After graduation, we navigated 4 different cars onto 3 different LA freeways and headed:
Where we brunched at:
Casey and I have heard about this place for years and it seemed like the perfect outing for a truly LA experience. We can't say the food was all that amazing, but the atmosphere was perfect. Check out where our table was! We could see exactly what was frying up.
the wall menu:
The kids were a little worn out by this point:
But we opened some gifts:
And we had plenty of this to go around (mmm, sourdough french toast):
Thank you parents for heading up and over for the occasion. And Casey, we are so proud of you and always appreciate the great efforts you put in for our family. We love you!
This is MY kind of salsa. Tons of tomatoes, no huge onion chunks (I know the onions are in there but they're small enough that I don't get a huge ole crunch of raw onion. yuck.), cilantro, and some real kick! Reminds me of a salsa my mom used to make when I was a kid. Me and the cousins would sit out in front of our house, after-school snacking on chips and salsa. Gotta ask her for that recipe....
