Graduation!!

I am so pleased to write this post about my favorite person and his graduation weekend.  My darling sweetheart, Jason Michael, graduated from Whittier Law School on May 17th, 2014.  He spent three years of his life dedicating it to all of the gruesome testing and studying that accompanies law school, but has succeed and risen above so many.  Over the years he has talked about classmates that didn't pass certain classes, or that had to re-do a year, and I couldn't help but be so grateful that I have a husband that made the 3 years as painless as possible.  I wanted to celebrate Jason's graduation for a whole month, but we sufficed with celebrating it the weekend of the joyous event.  

Jason was so honored when we got the news that all of Jason's immediate family, including his brother, sister, and mother, would be coming down to help celebrate his graduation.  Jason and I would continuously joke that California had better watch out, because the Burrows' were coming to town and they know how to play.  Boy did we play that day before Jason graduated! His family came down the Friday before his graduation, and we proceeded to take them on the grand tour of SoCal, including Newport Beach and Downtown Disneyland.  

Here are some pics from the beach portion of the tour.

Sunset at the beach!  With a photo bomb from Jacob in the background.  :)

Great picture of all of the original Burrows siblings at the beach!  Total legendary picture!  

We were exhausted from all of the fun on Friday, but woke up jumping up and down with excitement on Saturday for his graduation day.  I kept reminding myself that it was actually happening, because I swore that it was too good to be true and that I was just dreaming.
We woke up to find my parents and nephew, Matt, at our apartment down for the special occasion.  

My sweetie before he walked.  It was a sunny day!    

Jason looking smokin' hot in his doctorate robes and cap. 

One of the most poignant moments that I remember from the ceremony was the guest speaker beginning her address by immediately having a round of applause for the friends and family members of those graduating.  My first instinct was to focus on the graduates, but when I heard the claps I knew that Jason was clapping for his family that was sitting by me and that he had gone through law school with us cheering him on.  I knew that was a bad way to start off his day by crying my eyes out of appreciating and beaming with pride for my wonderful husband.

After he walked he came out looking all official as a true law school grad.  Look at that smile!  

Smiling because we are in love... and extremely relieved to be done with law school.  

Yup, after getting that degree this boy deserved a big ol' kiss!  

Jason with the Burrows' gang!

Jason with the Barnum gang!  

Once things calmed down we were able to meet up with everyone, including Jason's Uncle Dee and Aunt LeAnna, at one of our favorite restaurants, Lucille's.  There we made it a personal goal for everyone at that very large table to consume every piece of BBQ drenched, battered and deep-fried goodness that was served to us.  While we were waiting for our food to come, Jason was spoiled with several gifts, including hilarious t-shirts, thoughtful cards, and other gestures.

I didn't catch all of his gifts, but this one made him laugh as it was a TMNT key chain.  

Our server at Lucille's was great and after talking with Jason for a bit slipped him a birthday dessert.   

Here is a picture of Matt and Jason at our apartment.  When we got home on Friday we found that we had a sneaky boy that went around and decorated the place with graduation signs and banners all over.  What a sweet boy to think of that!

Another thing that I love about Jason (there are several) is that when it comes to serving in our church Jason never hesitates.  We ended up having to share the day of his graduation with a bakesale for the Young Women in our Ward.  Jason was not only willing to spend his evening there, but he was a huge helper for these Young Women to be able to raise the money to go to Girl's Camp.
The YW spoke to me before the bakesale and said that they wanted to thank Jason someway.  I told them that he will have plenty of people thanking him, so they helped plan a prank on him.  Thank goodness he is so good at taking a joke, because only a few short hours after he walked across the stage to receive his diploma, he was walking on the church's stage only to be sabotaged by the YW with silly string.

Bwhahahaha!

Look at all of the pretty colors :)

A couple of days before everyone came down for graduation, Jason and I were looking for some quick dinner and decided that pancakes sounded tasty, so we stopped at IHOP.  While we were looking through the menu, Jason got this dejavu look on his face.  He then told me that in these last 3 years of our lives, we had made a complete circle.  Without even realizing it, we had ended up at the very same IHOP that 3 years ago we had decided that we were going to move to California so that Jason could attend law school.  We couldn't believe the coincidence... or that the appeal for pancakes hasn't reduced in our appetites. We actually had not been back to the very IHOP since that day, so we had a very nostalgic moment without even planning it.

Jason holding up "3" for 3 years since we were there.  

Looking back at this time in Jason's life, I am only full of gratitude that I was lucky enough to be around Jason and see him gain this huge accomplishment.  He had so many amazing opportunities in law school, including visiting China, Korea, NYC and being a law clerk for 2 years at a Bankruptcy court.  Jason has truly found his passion in life and I am so proud for all of his efforts and dedication that he has shown it!  I love you, Jason!