Master Katie

So my dear sister graduated yesterday! She is now a Master Social Worker and I am so ridiculously proud of her. No more school for her, she's now a working professional and she's got her first job lined up already! We got to go up to Portland yesterday for her graduation and made a whole day of it. It was a great Portland send off- graduation ceremony at PSU, lunch at Killer Burgers (after 2 other lunch attempts that didn't work out), rode the tram, and had delicious icecream and lazed around the park down by the south waterfront. It was a lot of walking and paying for parking but it still managed to be so relaxing and nice. The weather was perfect and we took lots and lots of pictures:

The kids were pretty good during the ceremony thanks to lots and lots of cheezits and practice sitting in Sacrament meeting haha. It was definitely a very Portland-feeling comencement. There was more than one mention of the climate crisis and whenever a speaker was introduced it was also mentioned which pronouns he/she/they used. Katie's classmates definitely have a passion for standing up for the oppressed and being the change in the world. I was impressed by the hope they chose to have in the face of very real and threatening fears and obstacles. It made me want to share the gospel with them. Because they are just choosing to cling to love and hope but it is so hard when so many things on Earth can be so depressing and overwhelming- racism, hate crimes against the LGBTQ community, the destruction of the environment, etc, etc. I want to share with them the gospel to help them find the peace they so obviously lack. The state of the world is very scary to me too but I have the assurance that we have a supreme creator who has a plan. This world is ultimately His and He will purify and restore it at the last day and He will not allow the righteous to be completely destroyed despite the tumult of the last days. But at the same time, I know that many of these great people would have a hard time even opening themselves up to listen to the gospel because they hear the name of our church and automatically think of bigotry and exclusion of the LGBTQ community. I can see what they would think: "I'm not interested in anything from an organization that does not support my gay/transgender brothers and sisters and give them full and equal access and respect." And I totally get that. It's a challenge for me and I am looking at it from a place of so much more light and understanding. If I was on the outside looking in, I probably wouldn't take a second look either. And so I'm not sure how to reconcile that. It's something I don't have answers to yet. 

Anyway, it was definitely very different from my commencement but I really liked it. 

This sums up my kids pretty well- Emery trying to escape and Levi being very enthusiastic about something new. 

When we rode the tram, Emery was very into the pole haha. I have no idea why but she loved it! She would pull at it and push at it and thought it was so funny! 

 It was a clear day and views from the top of the tram were GORGEOUS. Unfortunately, Levi was very nervous about being so high up there. You can kind of see how he is clinging to me in this picture. So he was in a hurry to get on the tram going back down quickly. So we didn't linger up there very long. 

Emery just wanted to be put down so she could run around. 

She did lots of fun running around yesterday and loved every minute of it! 

Icecream face! 

Emery was so proud of herself for putting on Auntie Katie's purse!

Levi and grandpa! 

I love how you can see Emery's 1 1/2 teeth in this picture! 

Then in the evening, everyone came back to our house and we had a super late dinner, put the kids to bed and then all stayed up late talking and laughing and just being ridiculous. Katie tried to teach mom and me to do the fake smile she used to do as a kid and it was hilarious.

I love this family of mine and I'm so glad we got to spend one of our last weekends up here all together!