Pictures from Graduation (Since we're just so proud of them)

Last Thursday was the NSA Commencement ceremony in which our highly intelligent brother-in-law received his diploma with honors and all. He was also chosen to give the student commencement address, and he did a great job. It was strange to think that next year I will be up on that stage reciting the Latin motto, shaking hands, and signing the colossal school book (which you can see in the right hand corner of the one of the pictures).
In other news we have begun our two week countdown until we leave for Maui!! I am beginning my list of things to buy (Sunscreen SPF 5000 for Joel and I) and also starting to decide on which books to bring. I have found that even when I have the best intentions I simply cannot read deep books on a tropical vacation. I fall asleep in the sunbathing chair and wake up hours later with a terrible sunburn. When my body goes on vacation my brain willingly packs up and leaves as well, and so I am not even going to pretend to be productive this time. All that to say, I am looking for some good novels to bring along and would love any suggestions.
And to be fair I am also going to give a book plug. Both Joel and I read Peace Like a River (by Leif Enger) on vacation last summer and absolutely loved it. The characters are unforgettable, it is impossible not to get caught up in the storyline and the ending is little short of incredible. In school we learned (once, long ago) that the opening of a book is one of its most important elements; it is the deciding point for the reader as to whether he will continue the book or not. So here's the opening to Peace Like a River:

"From my first breath in this world, all I wanted was a good set of lungs and the air to fill them with--given circumstances, you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth century. Think about your own first gasp: a shocking wind roweling so easily down your throat, and you still slipping around in the doctor's hands. How you yowled! Not a thing on your mind but breakfast, and that was on the way.
When I was born to Helen and Jeremiah Land, in 1951, my lungs refused to kick in."


(Personally, I think it's the word 'rowling' that makes that first paragraph.)