Rachel's Grad

This picture goes with the last post- the new car!  Not a very appealing car but looks like it is made to be aerodynamic or economical in it's shape... and I don't think I have a preference of what the car Looks like- only that it is economical.

Rachel's grad!

It was a busy week.  It got to the point yesterday where Huckleberry was asking to go home from Grandpa's house- which says a lot as Grandpa is his favourite person.  He would take us to the door and if we opened it, he would walk us all the way to the car where he would paw the door.  Poor guy- he slept the whole way home and didn't even wake up when I checked on him to make sure he was still alive. lol

Today Scott starts teaching again- Good luck!

So I will start at the beginning of our adventures which was last weekend.  My youngest sister graduated from high school!!  Congrats Rachel!

I will add some pictures but also wanted to say a little about Rach and the weekend.

I didn't have to work Friday, although until Thursday, I thought I did.  So on Friday, Scott and I wanted to see the Canadian Qualifying Track Meet for the Olympics.  We ran some errands and got things ready for camping later and then waited for Grandpa and Diane.  Once they showed up, we went out for some great Mexican food and then Grandpa and Scott and I went over to the university.  Scott and I were going to leave straight from the meet to Lacombe, so we brought Huckleberry with us.  We decided if we couldn't bring him in, we would take him to Scott's office and leave him there.  I stuffed Huckleberry in my Ginormous bag- thanks mom for the present last year and away we went.  There was one "No dog" sign but no one stopped us and he sat quietly on my lap the entire time.  We watched a few of the events- including the men's 110m hurdles and the women and men 100m sprint.  (Click on the linked words to watch the races).  We were cheering for Sam Effah who is going to UofC and who we have both seen around campus a lot but he didn't do so well and came in last place. Justin Warner and his brother Ian Warner made the Olympic team along with Shae Smith (Who I didn't know about until this meet). We also found out that Heather Stacy is first in Canada in hammer and going to the Olympics.  She is from the University of Lethbridge Track and Field team which Scott was a part of when we were there.

After that, we walked Grandpa to the LRT and then left for Lacombe.  The drive up was fairly uneventful although we did see one accident.  A truck pulling an RV trailer blew a tire and jackknifed in the middle of the highway.  He was so stuck that his RV and truck were both damaged where they were jackknifed.  We must have come across it fairly close to when it happened because there were still people getting out of the vehicle and the vehicle that had stopped with it and there were no emergency vehicles although people were on cell phones, likely calling 911.  Luckily, no one looked injured.  We slowed down and drove around it.

Once we got to Lacombe, we stayed up and chatted a bit with Melissa, whose house we were staying at.  It is hard to take Huckleberry to my parents house and he can't stay there so we can no longer stay at their house when we go to visit as we do not leave Huckleberry at home/babysat unless we absolutely have to.  Melissa a family friend and is Crystal's friend from school.  She lived on the same block as us as we grew up.  She has two dogs of her own and it was great fun for Huckleberry to be able to play with some friends.  She was also sweet enough to watch Huckleberry while we were at Rachel's ceremony and while we chaperoned later that night.  She also said that he was a good dog, even when he pooped on her floor.  She made a comment that I really agree with.  It went something like this: people who don't have dogs don't understand them as well as people who do- makes sense and it's just like people with kids.  People with dogs know that dogs get anxious when they don't know where they are and when they can't find their way to the bathroom and can't tell you that they need to go, there are accidents.  Kind of like infants but we have them in diapers until they can communicate with us about when they need to go.

NEwho... I was so grateful for Melissa's help and for her understanding towards Huckels.

Saturday morning, we hung out with my family and took pictures. During the pictures, we went to the research station and to a small lake in Lacombe where I got bit by ants and had a little freak out. lol 

The "Look of destiny" as dubbed by Scott or "a look into the future" as he said at one point.  She looks great, doesn't she?!

The walk of destiny or walking into the future, you know Scott....

Maybe this one is the tree of destiny or tree into the future?  Guess I have to ask Scott... LOL

A photo with dad/Mr.Thompson/Mr.T.  Last daughter to graduate from high school, two more kids to go!

 After getting pictures done, Scott and I went to watch Rachel get her hair done.

 

This is during- looks great!

This is after putting in the hairpiece- which was prefect!

There was a short struggle as to how to wear the cap with such cute hair, but the hairdresser was smart and folded it up and under, so it never messed up her hair at all!!

After hair, we went into Red Deer to the Westerner for the grad ceremony.  The teachers presenting said cool facts about each of the students as they crossed the stage which was something I hadn't seen before and thought was nice.  Scott video taped anything that we though Rachel would like to have later and the nieces sat fairly well and tried to pay attention as long as they could.  When it was Rachel's turn all of her nieces yelled "Yay, Auntie Rachel" and then proceeded to chat "Go, Auntie Rachel" for a few minutes after. :)

After that was the banquet were the teachers gave silly awards to the students and the students mocked the teachers.  Rachel got to wear her dress!!  She borrowed a dress from a friend but she came down to Calgary a while ago to see if there were any dresses she liked better.  After a few hours of shopping she said that all the dresses were making her like the dress she had even better- which is how it should be!  So, instead we went shoe shopping and got her some amazing heels to go with the dress and to use after as well.  So, she had her "dream dress", great heels, and to make the outfit even more amazing, she got a great hairpiece from the family she has been working with in Lacombe.  It was perfect- the right size, colour and pizazz!!  She looked great! (I realized that I never took a picture of her in her amazing dress so here is a link  or two or three- this one is in Darryl's amazing car- to it on facebook)

 

Rachel's corsage.

After the banquet, Scott and I stayed for the parade of grads and then went back to Melissa's for a little down time before going back to chaperon the dry grad party or super grad as it is called in Coaldale.  It was held at the Collicutt Centre, a community centre in Red Deer.  This building has (all indoor) soccer, a gymnastics area, skating rinks, a pool, a massive gym area, two climbing walls, and a giant chess board.  I am sure that I missed something but it has a lot.  In the gym area, there were air jumpy bouncy castle type things as well as a sumo restling arena and outfits.  There was also a trampoline game of basketball.  The grads seemed to really enjoy their time and were always on the move.  There was also a Wii set up for people to play on a good sized screen and lots of food.  The one thing that I struggled with was that I was planning on supervising, not participating, but that is not the way it works in Lacombe. lol so I was pretty sore and tired the next morning after playing so much- glad we've been doing insanity cause I would be more sore if we hadn't.  The best part of the night other than hanging out with Rachel, was that I got to wear my new suit for the first time.  It is the most amazing one piece ever and I love it! (Click on the link to see it)  I also think this suit is great but never tried it on, so went with the lace.

The next day, we arrived at my parents house after church just as Rachel left for the YSA branch in Red Deer, (Young Single Adults) and Katie and Matt left for home.  We got to spend most of Sunday with the rest of the family, talking, eating, playing card games (way to go Liz), and practicing music for Liz's wedding (I'll talk about that in a later post).  Huckleberry came over and played outside for part of the day but it gets so hot and the kids love him a little too much for him to be out for long.  What a wimpy dog we have. lol

After that it was time to say goodbye and go home.