Don't Stop Believin': Suzanne's High School Graduation

This past weekend I drove up to Blacksburg, VA to help my cousin celebrate her high school graduation. My mom and sisters made the trip up from Raleigh, and it was nice to have the whole family together for the weekend. I arrived at my aunt's house first, and got to spend some time visiting with her before my mom and sisters arrived. As soon as they got there, my sisters and I grabbed our swimsuits and headed over to the pool where Suzanne works as a lifeguard. Of course we thought we would be funny and point and make stupid faces at her while she was sitting high atop her lifeguard stand...we couldn't figure out why she wasn't laughing and saying hello to us until we looked over at the other lifeguard stand and realized that we had been pointing and making faces at somebody else altogether. Whoops! Fortunately all parties involved had a good laugh out of it. Suzanne got to come hang out with us on her break and then worked on cleaning the pool tiles of the deep end so she was still with us for the remainder of her shift.

On Sunday we went to the graduation ceremony and were all surprised that Suzanne got to speak during the ceremony. (Even Aunt Susie was surprised to see her name in the program for that!) The whole group went out for a great lunch/dinner afterwards and then we hit the road to head back home. It was great to get to spend time with my extended family - the 5 of us are the only grandchildren on that side of the family and our families have always been really close since my mom and her sister (my aunt) are pretty much each other's only family. Here are a few pictures:

Suzanne speaking during the ceremony