Woohoo!! She Did It!!!

Where are you going, my little one, little one,

Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you're two,
Turn around and you're four,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door!

Seemed like only yesterday when you were going out of our door. We packed your car, my car and dad's truck. All the necessities a young college student would need. And we paraded 90 miles up I-5 to Bellingham, WA! We were moving you into your dorm room for the very first time. It was an exciting time and a sad time. But I was so good and held back the tears. That was four years ago and oh how those years have flown by. I once again held back the tears yesterday as I heard them announce your name and watched you parade across the stage. I am so proud of you...my college graduate! Now go and conquer the world!

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That's my baby girl, Katie, at 18 months. My one and only girl...sandwiched between two brothers. Yesterday she graduated from Western Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Visual Journalism and a minor in Sociology.

It was a wonderful two days! We drove up on Friday afternoon and stayed overnight. They had three different ceremonies on Saturday and she was graduating during the second one, at 12:30. We decided to drive up and enjoy a little time with her before her graduation. I waited too long to get hotel reservations, so we ended up in a little town called Lynden, about 15 miles north of Bellingham. Katie had to work Friday night, so after visiting with her a bit on Friday afternoon, we drove on up to Lynden. Our hotel was on the outskirts of town, so after settling in, we decided to head into downtown Lynden to find a restaurant. As we drove towards the historic downtown area, I immediately began to notice the tree lined streets and the manicured lawns. It didn't take me long to fall in love with this little town.

This town was settled by the Dutch in the late 1800's, early 1900's. Once we emerged from the tree covered streets, we were greeted by this beautiful mural....

And this huge windmill....

We ended up eating at a restaurant called Dutch Mothers. It was delicious, with lots of authentic Dutch foods. So good, in fact, the following morning, Katie and a friend of hers drove up to have breakfast with us at the same spot. From there we were off to Bellingham for the big event!

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, we have been hammered with a wet, cold spring! However, yesterday, the sun was shining bright and the temperature was a hot 75 degrees (hot for around here!). It was an absolutely gorgeous day!

We caught the shuttle to the gym, where the ceremony was being held. We ended up going upstairs and since we couldn't find seating for all four of us, we decided to stand at the back upper walkway. No seating there, but we had the banister to lean against. It turned out to be a wonderful location. I looked down and low and behold, there was my daughter seated just below us!

That's her with the red tassle, smack dab in the middle, between the two flag tips.

This was our view from where we were standing. It was interesting to see some of the unique ways students had decorated the tops of their caps!

This is Katie on her way up to get her diploma. As a result of her pose, the others had left her and she had to run and catch up with the rest of them! LOL!

Just after she got it!

The bag pipes are playing and she's getting ready to march out. Silly girl!

A lady was nice enough to take a picture of the five of us!

So...after the ceremony we went over to the book store to shop a little. We had dinner reservations at the tallest building in Bellingham at a restuarant called Nimbus, but they weren't until 8:30 that evening! So, we decided to head back to Lynden to kill a little time. I had seen a few shops from the night before, but Lynden is a town that rolls up the sidewalks at 5:00. So everything other than the restaurant had been closed.

The pictures below, as well as those above of Lynden were all taken on Saturday, with the beautiful blue skies. (Remeber, you can click on each pic to get a better/larger view.) We did a little shopping...

very little, since 5:00 o'clock came quick! But I DID manage to get in three antique shops in about 30 minutes. And I found quite a few nice pieces. Look at everything I found!
Lots of great rusties to use in my prim crafting! Now that's not a bad haul for 3 shops in 30 minutes! I tell you...I'm good! I know what I want and how much I'm willing to pay and I can get in and out of store in no time (if I HAVE to!) LOL!

Once the stores closed, we decided to drive around the countryside. It was absolutely gorgeous!

That's Mt. Baker! It looked so big and beautiful!

We then drove over to a town called Ferndale. Lots of beautiful country up there.

I have always loved murals on downtown buildings. And when I saw this one in Ferndale, I had to snap a pic. I just loved the "shadow" effect!

We finally made our way to the restaurant for our 8:30 dinner reservations.

This was the view from our table. Yes...it was still this bright outside at 8:30 PM! The prettier side of the restaurant that overlooks Bellingham Bay, is where they have their bar seating. Unfortunately, we had one that wasn't quite old enough to sit over there. But we enjoyed our view and we enjoyed our food. Very "interesting" food here, but very good!

Here are our three babies sitting across from hubby and me at the table.

It was such a wonderful day! We live so far away from all of our extended family, and I wanted to do something to make this day extra special for Katie. So I sent an email to all our family and asked them to either text her, email her, call her or write on her Facebook wall on her special day. And I was in tears to see how they all came through for her. She spoke to about a dozen people yesterday afternoon and had text messages and emails coming in all day. It was wonderful, and I never saw her so excited! It meant SO much to her!

This last picture definitely says it all. Now that is ONE PROUD PAPA! That's her dad and we are both SO very, very proud!