Graduation day

Well, it was a big day. Four years of the Academy, a year of the prep school before that, and a couple of years enlisted in the Marine Corps before that ... We were all pretty proud of him. He graduated "with merit" (even Cameron isn't sure what that means, specifically) and was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps. I am just so happy for him that he doesn't have to wear that awful, polyester, white Navy uniform anymore. =)

At the last minute (the night before), it occurred to us (well, to Linde, who is pretty smart) that maybe a big, long morning of sitting in the sun and listening to boring speeches would be perfectly horrible for the kiddos, and we went back and forth about taking them or not. In the end, it was way too late to get a babysitter, and neither Patrick or I wanted the other one to have to stay home and miss it, so we took them. They did surprisingly well, once I got them some water and a pretzel and popcorn. Patrick zipped them right back to the house as soon as Cameron walked, which was just in time to get back for lunch and naps. So it all worked out.

My beautiful little family.
(Look at those kids. Cute? Yep. Handful? Yes, sir.)

We were way, way up there, but we could see everything.

The Blue Angels did a fly over, and the speaker was VP Joe Biden, so there were helicopters and all that jazz as well. I have no comment about him, and I missed his entire speech anyway because I was walking with Molly outside. I did manage to keep her in long enough to witness the Marine officers oath and commissioning, and to see Cameron get his diploma, which was all that I really needed to see anyway. Molly got excited as soon as they started reading names, and clapped and yelled, "Yay Cam-wen!" for each graduate as they walked ... for a while. She gave up on it ever actually being Cameron before they got to him. I'm sure all the honors graduates who went first appreciated the extra applause. They asked the family and friends of each graduate to stand when their (not midshipman anymore) was called so that the support of everyone's family and friends was acknowledged as well. We stood and yelled our best, but we were pretty high up there - I doubt Cam could hear us. Oh, and I did get to see the famous hat toss at the end (after the kids left) as well.

Cameron, about to get his diploma. His roommate, teammate, good friend, and one of his groomsmen, Mike, is behind him. The graduates in black (about 200 out of the 1,025 graduates) are going into the Marines, those wearing white are Navy.

Happy, proud, DONE!

I don't know if there was another family in the crowd there that was honestly a little surprised that their kid graduated from high school at all, let alone got into college, let alone graduated with merit from one of the more demanding colleges in the country. Probably not. If we were any more proud of him, we would have exploded. Awesome. Here's John's post, with a link to some more pictures.