Congratulations Class of 2007!

Last weekend we spent a couple days celebrating the graduation of both Becca and Sophie. Both have worked unbelievably hard for the last 3 (or 4!) years to earn their Masters of Divinity and both are just about ready to become ordained into the Presbyterian church. Sophie is looking for her first call, and Becca's committe wants her to do one more internship before looking for that first ordained call but she'll be there soon! It was a great weekend full of the banquet on Friday evening for School of Theology graduates and their families, a sleep over at Sophie's that evening, the ceremony (which was beautiful but LONG!) on Saturday morning, lunch at Sophie's apartment for hers and Becca's families after the ceremony, and then the huge party that a family from the church the 2 of them have been working at threw for them. There were 130 people there to celebrate their accomplishments--it was quite the event! Here are a bunch of photos from the weekend:

They look awfully smart! (It was quite inspiring and motivating to keep plugging away at school knowing I get to wear one of those hoods someday!) They did it!Doing a "happy dance" because they survived!The ceremony was LONG--and we had to get there an hour and a 1/2 early to get seats, so we had a lot of time to waste! So, we used Kernie to entertain us quite well! We wrote his name into the program so he was an official graduate too--he is quite the smart little monkey!A shot of the church, the graduates, and all the faculty, dressed in their full regalia (they're up on the stage...)The four of us plus Kernie post graduationThe girls with our amazing Fuller president, Dr. Mouw and his wonderful wife Phyllis.And with one of everyone's favorite professors, Dr. Doug Nason, who teaches preaching and communications.And with Dr. Margurite Shuster, systematic theology professor. Dr. Shuster is probably THE most brilliant woman on campus. She was the first woman to ever graduate with her MDiv from Fuller and has a mind that is unlike any other I've ever seen! Plus, she is unbelievably gentle and pastoral with students struggling with tough questions. After the ceremony, both families plus Pocket and I went back to Sophie's apartment where we had lunch together. By this point we hadn't had much sleep, and had already had a long morning--we were a little tired! So Becca's cousin took this shot of us crashing!Saturday night at the party they had folks sign photo frames for both Becca and Sophie as people entered the party.Bob and Dave signing the photo frames.A group of Fuller students heading into the party--Becca, Bob, Kristi, Sophie, Dave C., JillSophie, Dave C. and I--Dave was my co-intern this past year at Burbank and on the Presbyterian Student Advisory Board with both of us.

Kernie enjoying a celebratory drink--the beer was "He-brew" beer which is one of Becca's favorites--I wish I had written down the label because it's fabulous--you'll just have to look for it and read it for yourself! His uncle Sam had introduced him to the wonderful world of Margaritas when we were in Houston last time, but I think this was his first taste of beer...I think he looks like he enjoyed it.Dinner time! Our meal was catered by Los TacosThey had ordered 2 cakes, one for each of the girls, and in sticking with the butterfly theme they had them appropriately decoratedBecca got Sophie with a fist-full of cake when she wasn't paying attention.More of the Fuller crew--Steve, Christina, Josh, Rebecca, Alan, Bob, Peter, KristiLater that night after most people had left we enjoyed hanging out by their pool/hot tub--except a couple of us had forgotten our bathing suits...so Pocket, Cassie and I enjoyed just soaking our feet.Our graduates--ready to relax after a long day!