Epic Grad Trip: California

I know I promised you two posts per month and this will be the first and only post in the month of June (since it's July tomorrow), but I have a super good excuse, which is that I was on vacation for 3 weeks in June. So will you forgive me if I promise you a full report of my epic adventures? I thought so.

So, the impetus for all of my June vacationing was this cute girl:

 

At some point when I wasn't looking, Miss Loo grew up and on 7 June she graduated from high school!

I'll admit, I got a teeny bit teary-eyed when taking this photo.

To celebrate the occasion, the whole family drove in to town (except me; I flew in) to sit in the hot sun (oh! how I loved being hot!) listening to the traditional "first day of the rest of your lives" graduation speeches full of the Senior class's inside jokes that we as spectators didn't get (granted, I didn't get most of the senior class inside jokes at my own graduation, so...).

And, of course, cheering loudly as loudly as we could when Loo's name got called and she was handed her (empty) diploma holder and a carnation.

I'm so proud of this one! She did great in school and did so many cool things like participating in musicals and choirs, taking ballet classes, playing the piano, and just generally being awesome. I loved being there to watch as her hard work was honored and she was officially released from mandated schooling.

And it was super fun to see the whole fam-bam all together! We've added an in-law and a baby since last year's trip to Tahoe, and we loved the time hanging out and celebrating everyone's lives.

We took pictures and watched movies and ate Swedish pancakes and talked and laughed and shared stories.

On Saturday morning we went to the (chilly) beach to enjoy the sand and the (lack of) sun. I went on a jog with one of the puppies, and we buried Mila in the sand. (She loved it).

Then, some of the family headed over to Monterey to enjoy clam chowder in a bread bowl and the coast bike trail while Loo, Mom, and I headed home to get everything ready to go to the airport where Lori and I caught and evening flight, destination London!

To be continued...