Victoria's Graduation

We had a  whirlwind trip to Charlotte for Victoria's graduation. There was almost an hour's worth of speeches. Can you spell "b*o*r*i*n*g!" Anyway, since there were only 400 students, the actual "name calling" only took about 45 minutes. At the very beginning, the dean of students asked very politely for everyone to hold their applause until the end---citing many reasons to hold off. Really, I was impressed with all he said and how he approached it. I was certain people would comply. I was so wrong!

Anyhooo, it didn't matter one bit. As soon as the--very--first--person--was called, the hooting and hollering started and never stopped. That aggravates the hell out of me. I'm a rule follower. When it came to Victoria's name, Mitchell and Elizabeth yelled for her. I shot them a nasty look. Afterwards, they said that they did it because if they didn't, then it looked sad for Victoria. I suppose.

The fun really began after the ceremony. We went to Del Frisco's for an incredible steak dinner. Picture taking before:

I asked for a picture when we got inside as we don't have many pictures of just the two fo us. Then I remembered, Butch hates doing pictures in restaurants. Still, he humored me, but not without complaint.

After our fill of steak and more than a half dozen delicious sides, we went back to the hotel Sandy and the girls have been living in for the last 7 weeks (they are ready to be gone). Victoria opened her presents and we had cake from Dessert Designs---which---

 Butch was not so happy to have to carry through the airport---not to mention it weight at least 10 lbs! All that butter!! Of course, Sandy would never have expected us to do it, but we decided to fly long after she ordered it.

It did get slightly dented on one side, but not too bad. As it turned out, they made the wrong cake. It wasn't what Sandy requested. She ordered the almond cream cheese pound cake with a raspberry filling. Dessert Designs is the premier cake baker of Nashville. We've gotten all of our wedding and special occasion cakes from them. Anyway, the cake they sent was really good, but had nuts. It was a disappointment since when you spend a hundred dollars for a cake, you expect it to be phenomenal! All ended well when Sandy called the next day to let DD know of their mistake. They fully refunded her money. Suddenly, the "wrong" cake didn't taste so bad!!

We have Elizabeth's graduation this week. We'll leave on Tuesday---driving this time (and geo-caching along the way)---and come home after the ceremony on Wednesday. Then we're done with graduations for 4 more years!! Only three left after that!

We might not like graduations, but we are definitely proud grandparents!! And, boy, were we when it came to Victoria! She received the Charlotte Catholic High School Scholastic Award for high honors all year! Sorry, I just couldn't NOT brag a little!! You know, grandparents and all.