Graduation Week

We had a busy week of graduations in May. Jaymee (Jayna's youngest sister) graduated from 8th grade at Akimel middle school on Tuesday the 20th and Jayden (Jayna's younger sister) graduated from seminary on Wednesday the 21st and then from Desert Vista High School on Thursday the 22nd. It made for some late nights for Shaylin and Emmalyn, but it was a lot of fun and we were happy to be able to support them as they move on to the next phase of their lives.

May 20th - Jaymee's 8th Grade Promotion

Jaymee's promotion didn't start until 8:30 at night so we got to hang out with her for a while before we went but then we had to leave after they read Jaymee's name in order to get home and get Shaylin to bed before 10:00.

We can't believe Jaymee is growing up so quickly. She is so fun and has such a sweet personality. She's always willing to come spend the night in Maricopa to help Jayna out while Matt is out of town and she even comes down every now and then just to hang out with us. Shaylin loves her and whenver she's talking on her toy phone and you ask her who she's talking to she says loudly 'Jay-mee!.'

Here's Shaylin and Jaymee before the promotion...

May 21st - Jayden's Seminary Graduation

Jayden's seminary graduation was at their stake center in Tempe. They had a few of the students speak and a few of the stake president's speak. We are proud of Jayden for going to all four years of seminary and graduating. It's not an easy thing to do - especially with the credit requirements the way they are now - but seminary is something that we both are glad that we were able to go to and graduate from.

Jayden and Jayna after the graduation...

Shaylin and Jayden after the graduation. Shaylin was very excited about the refreshments :).

Thanks to Nikki for the pictures! We left our camera in the car!

May 22nd - Jayden's High School Graduation

This was the most unique graduation that either of us had ever been to. For those of you familiar with Arizona weather, you know it's pretty rare to get any rain in May, let alone a lot of rain, but it was actually raining the whole day leading up to the graduation. The high school administration had been planning on moving the graduation inside if it was raining and only allowing two people to come per graduate. But after a whole lot of push back from all the family and friends they decided to hold it outside in the DV football stadium inspite of the rain.

We were also proud of Jayden for graduating from high school. She is so fun and giving and we always enjoy the time we get to spend with her. We will definitely miss her when she goes away to school in Utah in the fall.

Jaylene and Shaylin bundled up eating graham crackers and waiting for the graduation to start...


Jayna and Emmalyn before the graduation during one of the few times that it wasn't raining very hard...


Shaylin all bundled up with Jaymee underneath an umbrella...


Here's a picture during the graduation seminary. It's hard to tell how much it was actually raining from the picture, but you can kind of see the rain in front of the light in the background and how wet the track and umbrellas were.


We figured since we stayed through the whole graduation (a lot of people left after their student's name had been read), then we had better get the traditional picture on the field. Here's Jay, Lacey (Jayden's friend), Jayden, Leah (Jayden's friend), Jayna, and Emmalyn - all bundled up in the blanket that Jayna's holding.


Jaymee and Jayden...