The Graduation

The time has finally come- riley and allison are official baccalaureate graduates, and as such will be making 50k more than non-graduates, by virtue of their degree. Hopefully. We'll have to wait five years to see. But according to riley's research we'll already make more anyways because we are married.
Nuff about salaries.  We won't have one for a while anyway.

Let's start with the day of commencement. The econ department had a nice lunch where families came and met professors. These are the 388/588 TA's with Professor McDonald. (am I allowed to have favorites? If so, he's my favorite)

 This is Grant. They research together.  

Thursday at 4 in the Marriott Center:

Waiting for gpa and gma serafine to pick him up. I think he was excited. 

Dean Ogles took this picture for us. He's a big deal.

Cecil.

Elder Perry. His talk was awesome

With Greg and Becca. or as riley and call them- brec and grecca.

With gma and gpa bradshaw!

Then there was convocation-- where riley got to where this:

And we sat on the stand. We were blessed to have really great supporters there. Namely: Mom, Dad, Katelyn, Grandma and Grandpa,

 Merrill and LouJean,

 and Kelli (not pictured, erin, elsie and Bennett- wait was bennett even there? I think he was playing pretty hard on the playground the whole time)

Graduating inspired us to hike the Y the following day.  For those who think that is an easy hike- you are wrong. It is one mile up. and I mean UP. No flat ground until you get back to your car. Nevertheless, it was very fun! Benson really enjoyed the ride.

relaxing before the hike

In the fourth month

Last week was a big one for Benson.  Many things were done, learned, mastered 

and accomplished... including:

Rolling from his stomach to his back.  He is mobile folks-and proud of it!

Here he is.... 

and suddenly on his back! He surprises himself every time.

Rice cereal for his very first time. He mostly wanted to chew on the spoon.

Shout out to Kelli who let us borrow the bumbo.  Benson LOVES it. Thinks it is a throne. He's confused.

Anytime he sleeps in his car seat he holds on to his elephant.  He loves that elephant. 

Sometimes he hides behind dad when it is bedtime....

Rice cereal again. He GOBBLED it down. I'm not kidding.  He knew exactly what to do. It was gone before I even sat down to feed it to him. 

Stared at these flowers for a sold 10 minutes. 

We also met up with LouJean and Bennett for a few activities.  At Thanksgiving point farm they had these tiny, darling little lambs running around.  Soooooooooo cute.

 These baby goats had such long ears! 

Bennett braved the horse ride.  I've always felt bad for the horses that walk in circles doing this. What a boring job- and they don't even get paid.

Bennett rode the fake tractor the entire time. 

 Eventually LouJean gave up suggesting other things and joined him.

Another day we went bowling.  I surprised LouJean with my wicked bowling skills (thanks dad!)- four strikes, thank you very much. 

And here is riley's ridiculously gigantic stack of tests to grade. ugh. the final was like 15 pages each. no joke.

nuggets, broncos & rockies

Last weekend Riley presented at a conference in Denver, CO.  From what I hear it went well.  I think the highlight of the trip was an Indian food restaurant. The day before the conference he participated in a poster conference at BYU.  Pictured below.

I guess all that time spent researching is paying off!

In other news, Benson got a saucer.  Well, actually we bought it and are letting him use it (sound familiar mom and dad?)  he LOVES it.  I can make all of dinner, or wash the dishes, sometimes both while he entertains himself in the upright position.

one picture just wasn't enough.
For those of you who need free food-look no further. On tax day several businesses offer freebies. Arby's and cinnabon to name a few. For you utah locals: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=24803538&nid=148&title=heres-a-running-list-of-tax-day-freebies-in-utah&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-4

i'm going to a beach, i'm going to a beach!

Benson is very excited to go to the beach for his first time. So excited that he got a hat to prevent sunburns. Have a looksie...

I don't know about you, but I think this hat ages benson a few months.  He is growing before my very eyes!

a bun in the oven

Kate, Mother and I threw Kelli a baby shower on Saturday. We had an awesome time planning and preparing for it! Everything turned out really well. Kelli was literally showered with darling clothes and other baby items.  Thanks to all who came and supported Kelli.  We can hardly wait to meet this cute girl!

the headband station- those who wanted to helped make fabric flowers.
I didn't get a picture of them all when it was over.

Dad was so willing to help us hang balloons  

"thanks a ton, have a bun!"

Benson with the woman of the hour! 

Aunt Judy and her girls gave Kelli the tickle monster book and gloves. holy cow. so so so cute. 

I declare it a success!