graduation and the move... aloha 'oe

The semester came to a quick close and graduation finally arrived!
The fall semester was tough to get through but we did it!! I was truly ecstatic to be finished.

At the banquet... Our families flew in to celebrate this major milestone and help us pack up our lives. Graduation was a two-day event starting with a graduation banquet the night before, the ceremony and the celebration.

The ceremony was wonderful. The talks were great and they made it so memorable for the graduates.
It was wonderful to hear Elder Perry speak and when he shook my hand when I received my diploma he said, " This is a big step for you." I said "yep!" because it is! It felt so nice to graduate and so so so awesome to graduate with my husband. It could not have worked out better.

I am so proud of my husband for graduating!! He graduated cum laude in Business Management with an emphasis in Corporate Finance. What a stud.

We are so grateful for the oppurtunity to earn our bachelors degree and are extremely grateful for our families who supported us to do so.

I am so grateful for the chance to study International cultures. It is such a unique and special major that I grew to love. It has encouraged me to look at the world and myself with new eyes and I hope to teach my children to do the same.

We had lots of friends that graduated with us! Here are our fellow neighbors and graduates:Rachel (under allll her many leis) and the Harmons

Celebration BBQ time at pipeline.

Relief! We finished! On to relaxing and enjoying our last few days in Hawaii.

Moving out of TVA was sad in some ways and not so sad in others. We made many memories in these married dorms and will miss the great friends we were surrounded by.

Thankfully, we had our parents there to help us pack up/ throw away our whole place. We didn't do much of it before because we were so busy with finals.

(Advice to those who are moving off island soon: sell your stuff asap [sooner the better] on a blog or garage sale, our airline(Hawaiian) surprised us and let us check on baby stuff such as baby walker and jogging stroller on for free, and don't rely on craiglist or flyers solely to sell your car, just write a price and a # on it with glass chalk and go drive around the island, that seemed to work the best)

Our last few days we spent staying at the turtle bay condos, surfing, and playing at the beach. Cameron and I even got to go out just the two of us to Lei Lei's for dinner to celebrate our last night there.

Hawaii was wonderful.

It was so hard not to ball my eyes out when our ward sang "aloha 'oe" to us. The last three years were like one big honeymoon in paradise (+baby). We grew closer being out there on our own. We enjoyed the beauty of the island and learned to love the aloha spirit. We will miss paradise and its warm water and big waves but we look forward to the new chapters in life.

Hawaii, aloha oe... Until we meet again.