May 7, 2011 Saturday - Dallins Graduation from Phoenix

The day started with me waking up at 7:30-8am and not being able to go back to sleep. Then Mum and Dad showed up around then. They came to pick up Gma, but they were really early so Mum marched up to my room while Gma wondered if I was even home. They didn't leave til like 8:45. The graduation doesnt start until 10, but we were going to show up at 9 cuz we hear that seating is a pain in the butt. So they left and I waited for Evan to come pick me up on his motorcycle. heh! We left around 9:30am. I wasn't in any rush to get there an hour early. Turns out this is a pritti popular thing this Phoenix school is... There were cars lined up all the way from I-215 to the E Center, excuse me, Maverick Center. Since we were on the bike we juss rode past everyone and easily snuck in line and then when we got to parking they let us in at a different location than everyone else and told us to take up island parking instead of actual parking spaces. So we got right up front on the island. We decided to take our helmets in to feel/look cool and to explain to Min why I couldn't take her kids home, but Mum could.

Mum told us where they were sitting so we found 'em easily and they saw our helmets and Mom kinda did a mouth drop a bit and we sat down and waited and read the program. Dallin was one of 11 that did the Associates in Criminal Justice. I think there were technically 5 or 7 of us in my degree, but only two of us showed up for graduation. Then they took up half the arena, I think high schools grad was bigger than that, but my college grad was able to fit in the frickin Tabernacle. Kinda sad.

Dallin spotted us before we found him so we were trying to point him out to each other. I told Loryn where he was and she waves or attracts attention to get a reaction out of him. He's like "I see ya.." kinda look and wave. Min was stuck in the long line from either 215 or I-15 and wondered if there was any parking left. Then she followed our directions and we looked up every once in awhile and spotted her at the top of the stairs searching for us. I waved at her and then Loryn waved too and I think got her attention before I did. So she huffed down the stairs and chucked a kid at us and said she's gonna kill him. Then she and Brax tortured me the rest of the ceremony cuz they were sitting behind us. I showed her our helmets and why we had to change car arrangements to take the kids.

Anyways, the first few speakers juss read their papers they drew up and then the president of the school or something spoke and he was loud and interesting and not monotone. I liked his speech. He did the whole "how many are the first to grad in their fam" and "how many are parents or grandparents graduating?" and blah and it was interesting to see how many their were. They did the PhD's first, of course, then the Masters degrees, then Bachelors and then Associates so Dal was in the second to last row that we had to wait for.

The only interesting things that happened after that was one girl did some kind of flip across the stage, another girl had a lai made of money, when they called out names you could hear where their fan clubs were in the arena, Dallin forgot his name tag thing for them to read his name and left line to go back to get it and then rejoined the line out of order I think, and the very last girl on the stage tripped and fell, got hugged by the president and a handshake, picture, and then stairs and then fell again walking back to her seat. Kinda sad. But it only took til noon and we were done.

I had to swim through the sea of ppl to find a potty. Ever went potty with a helmet on yer head? Yeah I didnt do that. Then we lost our group and we stood outside and changed our outfits a bit cuz it was so hot. I took off my jacket and put on the leather vest and his top gun glasses. He took off his long sleeve shirt and shoved his leather jacket in the backpack. I looked like a biker then. We wandered and found our group. Then we decided to go out to eat at Braza Grill. This decision took a long time over the past couple of weeks....me making the suggestion, Dallin contemplating it and ultimately deciding he couldn't afford it, then Mum offering to take him juss so he'd go, and then bringing everyone else, blah blah. But we all know that Dallin really wanted to go so here we go and it is his graduation.

So we got on the motorcycle and headed out and ran into Mum, Dad, Gma, and Brax on the way to their car and Dad stopped to take pictures and Gma saw me riding too, I thought it was cool they actually saw me on the bike and Dad taking pictures and Evan trying to hide in his helmet. Then we slipped out of the line of traffic pritti easily being so small and fast and we got to the Grill like 15 minutes later while everyone else in cars got stuck in the long line to get out of the parking lot. Teehee. So we got their early and made reservation for 11 ppl in 30 minutes assuming they'd make it in 30 minutes. When we got there they didnt have room for 11 ppl and we didn't make any reservations beforehand but she said she'd have room in 30 minutes and we said okay we'll take it/wait. So we waited for 30, the rest of them took that 30 to get to the place. There were a lot more ppl going in than coming out about that time... and I was glad we got their early to save a place cuz I know Dal wanted to go there and it would suck if we couldnt cuz we didnt reserve. I called Dad juss as they passed the place... He prolly had his GPS on his phone going and I messed it up by calling, but they were in the fast lane going fast I dont think they were gonna turn anytime soon...

So we were all finally gathered and seated... No waitress showed up so we started with the salad bar and while we were gone she came to order drinks. Evan asked me if we should explain how this grill works and then proceeded to explain to my fam how it works. I thought the waitress would help with that... We got food and the meat started coming and we snarfed. The baby boys didnt eat anything really and seemed kinda ornery. I dont know if Dad even enjoyed any of that sitting next to the boys. Mom ate while trying to feed the boys. She wasn't so excited about the meat. Gma tried all the meat it sounds like and ate more than anyone else had ever seen her eat before... Loryn ate mostly the pineapple. No one like the garlic chicken and sausage and always passed it up after the first try. I couldn't eat my meat fast enough. I could tell Evan was super starving and he ate alot. I think we all ate a lot cuz it lasted for the rest of the day. We seriously didnt need another meal after that fer the rest of the day. We all ran out of drinks and employed random servers to help us since we never saw our waitress again...

I gave Dallin his pressie of mucho monies and his wife was happy. He claimed most would go to the baby. Whatever. I dont wanna see the next new gun gadget you have or the newest phone you got or better ipod you bought for entertainment. I gave him Mins pressie of children Dr. Suess books of places he'll go and a cute card. I gave Mums Mothers Day card to her at the graduation cuz we were bored and she laughed when she read the "Yer like a Mom to me" on the outside and the "oh wait" on the inside.

We finally got to the check and she came out to give it to us and never came back to run the card so everyone else split really while Mum waited for her card. She decided it she had to pay for most of the party anyway might as well get the whole check. I told Evan I wanted to stay with my mom and wait for the receipt and stuff and he blurts "I want to stay with her too" and the look she gave him wondering if he realized what he said or if he was joking or whatnot and then the smile that followed was super cute on my mom. We had a comment card and Evan decided to fill it out and complain about the lack of waitress. I know its a Saturday and all these graduations and mothers day stuff is going on, but still... need more staff on the weekends! or juss better staff... It was slightly annoying. Then after all that complaining we discussed a tip. Ha! I ended up giving $13, that about 10% fer her efforts.

Then we went potty after drinking all that they...would give us.. and headed out to the motorcycle and saw Dallin and Loryn in the parking lot still so we came up and said hi and put on our helmets and they stopped and watched as we took off. I bet he was thinkin he never thought he'd see his sister get on the back of a motorcyle and colored hair or something. hah I'm glad most the family got to see my adventures with Evan and the motorcycle. :D We went off to Gmas to wait for Mums car so we could take it to get cleaned as a Mothers Day pressie. Of course, we were the first ones back to the house. Dal went down south to get a crib and see friends never to be seen again that day. Min didnt come to eat with us and came back from her meeting. The boys came back with Gma and Mum and Dad.

I stole Mums car and we went off to find a car wash and vaccum. The day felt like it was juss going and going and going. We never stopped. It was a lot easier washing the car with two ppl rather than one and then we tried two diff vacuums trying to get it suck out the stuff in her car. She had one missing backseat mat and the drivers carpet map had a huge hole in it where yer heel goes, but the other two were fine, so we decided to go find some cheap mats for replacement. We bought some wipes to wipe down the dust and dashboard. Evan got the window cleaner and wiped those pritti good. We got slurpees through all this juss for a nice cool treat with all our work. Their tires were really low so I checked their tire pressure and told 'em to fill up to save on gas mileage. She also mentioned that her AC stopped working on the way to the Grill so we messed with the AC a bit and noticed that it would go back and forth from cold to warm and decided it needed to be recharged but we didnt go to the effort and juss left it. She said on the way home tho that it was cold and/or fixed. I didn't do anything, but okay!

Back at Gmas they all sat outside and talked while the kids played and then Min got fed up with the boys around 6pm and took them home. Then Mum and Dad decided to go home and of course that meant Neal had to go home too which left me and Evan again. Then I had to plan out Mindys Mothers Day pressie and how to do all that. I was supposed to sneak her mail from Claine and give it to her with the flowers and bracelet that Claine wanted to get her, but we didnt have time all day. I still had to get some daisy flowers so we went to the store and got that and then went back to his place and went to the gym where I somehow had the energy to do the hill and then we got to the shower around 9pm. I felt bad that I didn't go to the boss's sons wedding, but I was invited only the day before and I was gonna squeeze it in my plans if I could, but that didnt work out. But Evan ended up giving me a massage when we turned on a movie and surprisingly we couldn't sleep after all we did that day til like midnight. So we decided this monday was a good sleeping day. mwhaha.

Sunday, May 8, 2011 - Mothers Day

We went to church and everyone finally got around to asking us if we were new in the ward and then came back and ate some food then went off to Mindys to plant the flowers and pressies before she got back from church, but she came home an hour early so we were caught. But we continued as if she wasnt there. I gave her the daisys, took the roses for the other mothers coming to dinner that night. I gave her a 'Big Sis' necklace and me the "little sis" and the "BF" thing for Mothers Day. I gave her the bracelet with hearts that Claine wanted me to get and then the cheap heart full of sparkly fake diamonds and she liked that better than the bracelet mwhaha. I win. Claine loses. I wanted that bracelet.... but I had gotten the infinity heart from JC Penny after a long painful search for it so I got me some cheap jewelry at the Mothers Day sales too so I was good. I cleaned up after my cat and watched Brax hold the hedgepig. Min said she still couldn't find anyone to take the illegal hedgepig from her for 14 months and thats when Evan started pulling at my pants with an excited look on his face. He wants to babysit the hog for 14 months. I hate the thing and dont want him to have it. hah Then we attempted to leave Mins to hang out quietly at Gmas til dinner, but Min decided to come with us. We laid on the couch downstairs and attempted to sleep while the boys watched Tangled over and over til dinner.

Jed and the boys came over to cook dutch oven for dinner. They prolly started around 3:30 and we didnt eat until 6:30 or 7pm and we were all starving by then. The boys almost polished off a box of cereal before dinner. They had BBQ chicken, potatoes, rolls and salad. We avoided all the socializing upstairs and came up only for the food. Neal was annoying me pretending he couldnt hear what I was saying and mumbling so I threw a little bit of water on him from my cup. hah. Sometimes I juss cant handle his immaturity. David apparently asked his dad in the car the other day why he didnt like me. Neals like 'I do like her' and Davids like "why are you so mean to her then?" haha. Anyways we had peach cobbler after that and then they all started packing up and leaving. Min went first and then Neal and Jed and soon after me and Evan took off to watch a movie before bed. I gave the mothers roses as they went out the door. Wheee. A nice end to the day.