Annnnnd, We have a Graduate!!

 Well, before he was a graduate, Josh went to an awards dinner.

We paid big bucks to go to a sort-of fancy dinner where they passed out awards and celebrated the kids' achievements.  Josh was awarded a scholarship, which was exciting and he was recognized for his 3.6 GPA.

After the dinner, he hung out with friends and signed yearbooks.

But June 8 was the big day!!  

Yep, that's the best picture, because rather than use the school Auditorium, or the base theater, they held graduation in the gym.  I'm still a bit salty about that.  And you couldn't see much and they wouldn't let you get up and take photos anywhere near the "stage".   Whatever.  My boy graduated. 

After the ceremony, we looked for Josh and he looked for us and then he found us and was so cute, dashing over for hugs and congratulations. 

That's my boy!  He's a High School Graduate now! 

Getting all the love from his sisters. 

Callie insisted that he needed flowers.  So he got them.  And he was pleased.

There was some last minute yearbook signing. 

And then some victory pull-ups.... you know, since we were in the gym and all.

..... yep, still salty about the gym.....

Delaney and Rylee Selfies... mostly

These girls!!  I swear, they find my phone and take a million pictures with it.  I'm going to share just a few of their gems here for you.  

There is also a picture somewhere of Delaney at the 7th Grade award Assembly getting awarded. And  the last pictures are of the baby watermelon that the girls grew themselves. that was very exciting and it was sweet and delicious.  

500 dog pictures

 Okay, 500 dog pictures is what I find on my phone.  Fortunately, for you, I whittled it down to fewer.  Mostly they are of Sarah, the Foster Dog. If we are not careful, she may become OUR dog. She is just so cute and spunky.  But I love her "I'm so uncomfortable" look that she has when you pet her- after she demands that you pet her!

Baccalaureate

 June 2 was Josh's High School Baccalaureate.  I made him go because I figured it was part of the graduating process.  I was a little surprised how NOT non-denominational it was, but it was pretty good.  I did appreciate that the one speaker talked about how this was the first step to graduation.  He said it really well, and now I can't!  But it was an ah-ha moment for me and just hit home that this was the beginning of the end.

Ryleehas a long way to go before she gets to wear this for real!

That's my boy!

The side-eyes are cracking me up!

And when we got home, he called me out to see just how windy it was.

 And I think this may be my very favorite photo!

Another Temple Trip?!!

Since I am in the Relief Society Presidency, we decided to try to make the temple more accessible.  I mean, as assessable as possible when you live on an island without one!  So we planned out a one-day trip to Fukuoka. With cheap flights (under $100), we coordinated a trip for June 1.  6 ladies attended and we had a good time.  We caught the 9:30am flight out and the 8pm flight home.  

We landed in Fukuoka, stopped for a delicious lunch, then took two taxis to the temple.We did the 1:30pm English session, which was packed.  Then we did pictures.  We had a misunderstanding about metro stops and rather than walking to the closest station, we walked a few miles to the biggest station.Which was fine. We had time and we enjoyed the walk, but we did walk for over an hour!  

I managed to talk the rest of them into trying Okonomiyaki for dinner and everyone left happy, especially me!  We took the metro to the airport and had plenty of time to get checked in and to our flight.  It was a really great day with some really great ladies!

Me, back in my beloved Mainland, at the Fukuoka Temple!

Group shot! They asked a sweet Japanese lady if she would take the photo and she got way down to get just the right angle. She she nailed it!

Temple from a different spot, as we were walking away. 

 Another group shot as we hoofed it through the city.  Good times!

And if you are counting..... This makes the 4th temple in the 4th country in 4 months!  March was Hong Kong, May was both Taiwan and Seattle, and June was Fukuoka.