Thursday, July 10, 2014

California~ The End

On Thursday, the morning after our three day Disney adventure, some of us went to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping. After we found our souvenirs, the Master and I sat outside in the shade drinking frozen pink lemonades and soaking it all in. We knew that cold weather and rain waited for us back home. You know me, I love a palm tree, so I was just dreaming of living in a sunnier place!

Our "selfie". Not bad for a couple of Baby Boomers!

Nick & Di hamming it up.

The next day was Nick's big day.
After two years of late night study groups, paper writing,
Internships, and plain old work he was receiving his Master's of Social Work 
from
 the University of Southern California.
Diana  made a little cap and gown for Lucas, no pattern!

Nick wanted Lucas to walk with him to get his diploma. We were all worried he might not be a happy camper but he loved every second of it! I swiped a few photos from Diana here.
 Look really close and you can see Nick and Lucas about to get the diploma!

Louie was a big hit! He had everyone smiling. Notice the security guy taking a picture of him!

I absolutely adore this picture! Nick and Diana had been posing for us and Lucas wanted to be a part of it. This photo and the next one speak true joy to me! They did this together with lots of sacrifice and patience


It's always interesting to be in the LA area. You never know who you are going to see. We were standing there and Kareem Abdul Jabar walked by with his SoCal casual Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, and straw Panama hat on. My camera was not at the ready for that!
Then we had a fun photo bomber drop by. Nobody famous,
 he just popped into the picture we were taking and congratulated Nick!


Here are the members of the Mowes family who made the trip.
From left are Jessica, Nick's sis-in-law (husband Cameron is in Afghanistan right now), brother Brandon who just graduated from the Navy's nuclear school on the east coast, father Michael, Nick, Lucas being silly, Diana, and mother Tami. Mike and Tami are back in the States after being stationed in Germany. They live in South Carolina now with sister Hanna who was not able to come because of school.
I would like to mention that Jessica is living her dream while her husband is deployed. She is a member of the San Diego City Ballet! Love her darling personality!

Here we are...the Loose gang! Britt, Rachel, Sarah, Dee, Nick, Lucas, Diana, Richard, & Moi. It was Los Angeles and we were the best dressed people there! I told my men they had better wear a tie, it's a graduation for Pete's sake! Richard quickly discarded his! Dee would like me to point out that he forgot his dress shoes at home, and I had a blister the size of a quarter on my right foot so I wore my flip flops, feeling badly about it until we got there and saw how casual the atmosphere was!

 Also present were Nick's grandparents, Gunther and Hannalore. They are so cute!

Apparently it is tradition to have your photo taken by the Tommy the Trojan statue. The line up front was quite long so we sneaked in for a back view!

The next day we headed south to beautiful Laguna Beach for an afternoon of sun and relaxing.
It was so fun to be all together!
I love my kids and it seems they are all heading in different directions geographically, so I cherished this time.




 Louie is such a little water bug! He was totally in his element having been a beach baby his whole long life!

Roxie, on the other hand, was a bit more tentative and did not appreciate the ocean. 


 We had a wonderful trip! 
The best was seeing Nick get that degree and being all together! 
Isn't family just the best blessing there is? 









2 comments:

URFAVE 5+A Few said...

I'm so glad you all got to be there! It looks like it was a great time and everyone looks sooo good! I'm so proud of Nick and Diana. A very huge congrats to them!

Nancy Face said...

I love this post so much! I can't even believe how cute Lucas looks in his little cap and gown!