dental graduation.

date: sunday, june 14th, 2009.

place: nob hill masonic auditorium, san francisco.

roy, bea, emerson and i with a few other class leaders attended a pre-graduation luncheon atop the fairmont hotel across from the graduation venue. the views of the city were beautiful.

this was the start to graduation...does anyone know what the giant battle axe is for?

it was so nice to have enough family there to help out with the munchkins. a big thank you to aunt beth for watching over emilia. a big thank you to cousin maleigh for keeping julia happy and to all the other family members who brought their i-phones for rockwell to run the batteries out on. baine was of course a dream boat and slept most of the time.

all six of us on stage to mix things up at the ceremony. poor dean ferrillo was probably cursing my name under his breath for bringing all the munchkins up for emerson's hooding...so sorry. (traditionally families would join the graduates on stage, but this year to speed things along, dean ferrillo asked families to wait until after the ceremony for pictures on the stage. i think emerson knew it was now or never)

baine slept through most of the festivities, even during the fog horns and cheering...it was a reeeeaaallly long ceremony.

we woke baine up for pictures and he doesn't look too chipper in this shot.

a BIG THANKS to auntie kaisa for providing treats galore...especially the blue airhead that rock got a hold of.

julia and dad.

julia has been through almost the entire ride through school with us...what a champion.

emilia has absolutely no idea what's going on except that someone told her there would be treats involved.

rockwell is excited for daddy to have a little more one-on-one boy time.

baine has been a complete angel from day one and pretty much is just along for the ride.

the whole gang...we did it!

emerson and his proud parents, roy and bea.

emerson with his sweet aunt nancy and pops. aunt nancy was in the city for a couple weeks leading up to graduation and we were able to spend some good time together.

it really meant a lot to have five of his six siblings there - monica, nate, beth, elliott, and megan. we missed you cristy! thank you all for making the trek out for emerson.

the thomson/bailey/ruggles gang.

the boys.

the girls

the reception following graduation.

place: hilton tavern, hilton, san francisco.

aunt nancy, out from chicago, was so so kind to host a great reception following the ceremony. she was determined to make it special and her hard work paid off! this was such a blessing because i was having a stomach ulcer deciding what to do with all the family in town. thanks again aunt nancy for a wonderful reception!