Yep, now we have one. Damian received his degree from Western University of Health Sciences, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific on Friday the 11th of May. We are very proud of him. I'll try to add a picture or two on to this blog, but it's still a challenge for me to do things like that.
Mike and I also attended Damian's Military Commissioning dinner on the night before. He has risen from being an Ensign in the Navy to a Lieutenant (sp?). He will be doing his internship at the Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California. He'll report in June sometime. But in the meantime he has to find a place for his family to live! That's what he's doing now.
We were going to spend Saturday at Magic Mountain, but Mike got sick and we came home instead. He's still kind of sickly today, even a day later. Eric and I both had a bug last week, but it didn't affect us for nearly so long as Mike's has. Poor guy.
We had a really fun luncheon after Damian's graduation in Pasadena. The graduation was held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (very classy place and quite old and ornate), and across the street is a new and trendy mall. 45 friends and family members gathered for a fun lunch and visit time at the "Yard House" restaurant in the mall. Damian and his friend and classmate Brian both continued to wear their graduation robes, so folks walking past our huge group on the way in could see what the party was about --those two young men, and about three or 4 others not in robes still. It was most of the LDS classmates who got together. Lots of kids, babies and grand parents, siblings. Damian had all 4 of his siblings there to see him graduate. I was the lucky one who placed the hood over his head in the ceremony. His college has a long tradition (the school itself is only 30 years old!) of allowing family members to "hood" the graduate. That was fun for me. It was a busy weekend, but now I know the Pasadena freeway really well because I drove/rode it 6 times between attending the Military banquet, the graduation and swimming afterwards.
Mike and I the the kids who came with us (Gail, Nick, Eric and Caroline) stayed in Chinatown. It was. . .ummm...shall we say adequate? An adventure? I'm glad we didn't have any babies with us. Caroline and Gail's room seemed a bit cleaner and less smokey-smelling than mine and Mike's and the boys. And those boys are boys. Well, I should have stayed in the Girls' room! Katie was there for one night, too. She spent a few days in Disneyland with Damian and family, and even met up with her mother-in-law, Michelle, for a while because Michelle was there, too.
It was so fun having all the kids around. Friday afternoon, Gail and Katie and I all went shopping in Chinatown for a couple of hours. I didn't bring my camera to that, so they will have to share pictures at some other time. Soon, we hope.
Congratulations, Damian!
