I did it.

the sappy long posts about reflecting on my life the past 5 years can end because I graduated. Finally graduated that is!! It was a fantastic week, finals were finals of course but packing knowing I could get out that house was great motivation!! I hung out with my best friend Melissa majority of the time than Ashley came into town cause she was also graduating. So we definitely made the best of her visit!!
Thursday we wanted one last outside hoorah in Southern Utah. It started by picking up our cap and gowns and getting free ice cream early in the morning. Then we gathered the crew and ate at Don Miguel's to celebrate the day's holiday of Cinco De Mayo. We finally took off for Red Cliff's where we spent the afternoon hiking around on the red rocks through the "slot canyons", going down the "slides" and cliff jumping. Yes I did it : ) It was a gorgeous day outside and we were more than happy to lay on the rocks and soak up the sun!

Promise that's me in that big splash! I did it...Cynd was just a lil slow on the capture : )




That night our class had originally wanted to do a big ol BBQ with just us 20 before the families started rolling in Friday but lack of planning left us with a last minute text to gather at pizza factory for dinner. Not all of us were there but enough of us were there to make it fun, as we reminisced, talked about future plans and as always told stories. It was a great last time for the friends at PF!!

Friday the fun continued... The fam arrived just in time for my pinning ceremony. The pinning was the part that meant the most to me so I'm so grateful they were able to come. It turned out perfect! We had great speakers (Professor Becky and buddy Daron) who almost put me to tears, then a slide show presentation which announced the Most Likely awards we'd received by vote of our class. Examples were: Most likely to-own the most scrubs, write a book, star in Grey's anatomy, get a nursing tattoo, etc... My award was most likely to get proposed to by a patient : ) We then received our nursing pins and had photoshoots before we were all off to eat with the fam.




The valedictorian of the whole school Nicole and myself : ) she's amazing!!
love these ladies!!

Definitely feeling the love!!!

Following a delicious lunch at pizza factory with the fam it was time for commencement with all the graduates. We got to line up on as colleges and parade around campus prior to the ceremony and it was actually really fun! we lived it up and thanked everyone along the route and smiled big for all the camera's not taking pictures of us. However, it actually was really cool to walk through all the faculty on both sides of us as they cheered and applauded (ours high fived us) right before we entered down into the stadium. In the ceremony us nursing students couldn't help but make a big deal about Nicole, we're so proud of her we cheered and stood up when they announced her. Not to mention the President admitted that Nursing is one of the most rigorous undergraduate degrees on campus, how can you not cheer for that!! I just hope everyone who has given crap in the past months was listening at that moment, if not I'd be more than happy to mail copies of the program with that statement printed in it highlighted with a personal message to you : ) Once again was an afternoon full of photos.

coolest jumping picture courtesy of channy's photography

the ribbon representing Jake

Would not be here without these two

Matty and me. one of the greatest kids I know!

Saturday was the convocation for the college of science where we actually walked across the stage for our "diploma". We had many photo ops while waiting around in the tunnel lining up : )

check out the dean's face!!! he's either really surprised or really happy for me...

My Twin and I. Seriously though.

Thank you so much to my support system!

2011 baby!!!

The goodbye's and tears begin...

So graduation is over. It was a pretty fun weekend and I kept my emotions under control majority of the weekend, unless it came down to my class then I was sad. I'm gonna miss seeing those guys all the time and it was hard to say goodbye after being together pretty much 24/7 majority of the time. I'm so glad was my family spent the weekend with me, it meant a lot to have them all in attendance (minus the bro's but they couldn't make it). I also was grateful to leave Cedar City drama behind and be rid of certain people I once considered friends. Good memories in that place and lots of growing up there, so naturally got a little emotional as I drove out of town Sunday morning and left it in the dust!! anyways, point is I did it. Finally graduated!