First: Graduation
We had so much fun during graduation! Both of our families (well, most of our family members) were able to travel out for graduation, so we spent several days with parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. It was a blast! We had just finished the mad rush at the end of the semester where it really seems like things will never end, so we definitely welcomed the break. Graduation was great! We had the processional the first day for all the graduates. Elder Oaks was the speaker and it was great to hear his words of wisdom for us.
The next day we went to the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences convocation. We decided we only wanted to go to one and we picked mine because I was selected as the Valedictorian for the Political Science department! I was so surprised and honored! We had a lot of fun sitting on the stand during the ceremony and looking out at all the family members who came to see us graduate. So I now officially have a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. And Matt, the cum laude graduate, has a Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics. Wahoo! Go Class of 2012! And we took lots and lots of pictures, of course.
Second: Move to East Coast
After graduation, our families left and we packed up everything in our tiny apartment. We gave away most of our furniture, which really helped us save a bunch of space in the truck. We only occupied 9x8x5 feet of space with everything we own! Half of our boxes were filled with books. It is really hard to get rid of them! We just keep buying more and more and we can never get up the courage to try to slim down our collection. Maybe we never will and I can have my dream library like the one in Disney's Beauty and the Beast! Of course we'll be able to afford that :)
Before we left, we tried to visit as many friends and family as we could. We spent a few days playing a grand total of 8 or 9 games of Settlers of Catan with Matt's cousins before we left. Matt won 4 times and I won twice. We're trying to become a serious double threat with that game. I'm just worried that someday no one will want to play with us anymore! So we decided to save a bit of money and catch a red eye flight to North Carolina. Wow. All I can say is that I felt pretty weird for a few days afterwards. We left Utah at midnight and got to Raleigh at 8:30 am. Yikes. At least we were able to spend a few days sleeping and catching up!
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| All of our things in the back of the moving van |
Neither Matt nor I have ever owned a car. We've been married a year and a half, are now college graduates, and we just purchased our first automobile! Our car is a beautiful blue 2006 Toyota Corolla we have christened "The Blueberry", a not-so-subtle homage to one of our favorite TV shows, Psych. And we LOVE it! So far, The Blueberry has lived up to all the high expectations we had for the famously tireless Corollas. My Mom also graciously gave us a Virginia is for Lovers bumper sticker that both is a good reminder of Matt's proposal in Lovingston, VA and a foreshadowing of our new home in Charlottesville. Perfect.
The Rest of the Summer
So what in the world are we up to this summer? Not too much. And we're ok with that. It has been wonderful to wake up and know that there aren't any looming deadlines, no tests coming up, and no strict schedule. It will be hard to give that up when we re-enter real life in August. Well, we're just going to live it up until then! We've got a trip with Matt's family coming up, a trip to Peru to see Matt's Aunt and Uncle who live there, and a bunch of smaller things. Plus, we still have some big decisions coming up. We still need to find housing in Charlottesville and we've got to figure out everything we'll be involved in up there. Well, until next time, remember to live the bigg life!
