The Graduate

After 4 years of going to college in the Midwest, my DD has finally reached the pinnacle (maybe) of her education {and softball} career. She graduated over the weekend and we were there to celebrate the BIG event with her.

My parents also came from California and hubby and I surprised them at the Denver airport where we had our layover. They didn't know that we were all together for the last leg of the trip.

The first night in Dayton, we had dinner at a Thai restaurant called Thai 9.

 The food was excellent -- one of the best Thai places I've been to [considering this was in Dayton]. We ordered Phad Thai, Mango Curry, Chicken Satay and they all tasted good. They were just the right level of spiciness, too!

(DD with her Lolo and Lola --- my Mom and Dad)

The next day, I managed to get 3 miles in to keep the running streak going. Weather in Dayton was HOT and humid. I couldn't get used to coming from 50 degree weather to 80 degree (but felt like 100) weather. We spent the rest of the day shopping at the Greene and had happy hour/appetizers at the Brio Tuscan Grille.

And if I've never mentioned it before (shame on me) but my Mom is a great cook especially Filipino food. She even took the time to show DD how to make 2 of her favorite dishes.

Pansit Palabok [which is so much better that the one I had recently]

and

Sinigang - a Filipino stew with braised pork using tamarind as a souring base that we eat over rice.

Then Saturday was GRADUATION DAY! We had to be at the venue early (around 8:30 am). The ceremony didn't start until 10:00 so we had some time to catch up with Mom and Dad and even take a nap.

The school had a few engaging speakers (none of whom were famous), but what stood out to us was the recognition of a student graduating with 6 degrees and you wanna know how old he is??? Seventy-two! And the youngest graduate was 19 years old.

The university was also nice to provide snacks to all the  family and friends of the graduates since the ceremony was quite lengthy.

After two and a half hours of speeches, recognitions and handing of *pseudo* diplomas....it was finally over.

 We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Always a good bet but kinda pricey for my taste.

DD loved, loved, loved her graduation present from hubby and I.

{Great deal on a Canon Rebel T3i from Costco}

Can you tell????

It was so nice to spend the warm weekend with family, especially my parents whom I  haven't seen for so long. I miss them already...and I miss DD, too.

We took a really early flight out of Dayton so we were back in the West coast by 9:30 am on Sunday [the only good part of flying in from the East Coast] --- so we had the rest of the day to tackle chores and get some physical activity in --- I ran 1 mile and did Body Pump while hubby went for his bike ride.

Guess who was always happy to see us -----

How was your weekend? Any graduation celebrations in your family?