Weekending- Bub is a Bearcat grad!!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

On Friday, Jacob graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelors degree in finance. It was a great, if busy, day and we couldn't have been more proud of Jacob. I'll let the pictures do the talking (with commentary of course).

My purse: Likely the only mom of the graduate sporting a football HOF bag as her purse ;). The website said that only clear plastic bags could be brought into the stadium where the graduation was. I borrowed this from a friend. When we arrived at the stadium, it was evident that women could bring in non clear bags. But I was following the rules hence the football HOF bag for me.

Before we left for Cincy

I took this picture of Donnie next to a UC sign as we walked to the stadium. Donnie graduated from UC and felt like he got a good education. I graduated from a state school as well and so far two of our kids are going/ have gone to state schools. 

We did not get good seats!! Donnie had some work that he had to get done in the morning before we could leave. We arrived within plenty of time of the ceremony starting. But... good seats we did not get. I took this picture with my cell phone. I was soooooo glad that I brought my Nikon with a zoom lens.  I was able to use my lens to zoom in to be able to see Jacob.  By dumb luck where we were seated up high, Jacob was seated at about the exact same spot as we were just way below. I texted him before the ceremony started and asked him to stand up so I could try to locate him with my lens. 

I zoomed in and after panning the camera around saw a familiar looking backside (not that I'm used to seeing J in a robe but I could tell it was him!). I texted him and told him to turn around (we had no idea where each other was sitting vis a vis each other!).

Getting closer...

There's that smile!

zoomed out view with my Nikon- The graduation ceremony was for undergraduates in the school of business and the school of engineering.

Some graduates wore hard hats instead of traditional caps?

Let's get the graduation started... some Important People started filing in...

...and One Important Person started talking (there was no paper program- you could download a program to your phone. I didn't do that so I have no names or titles of the Important People. 

We sang the national anthem

I liked the lit up Cincinnati sign

I took some pictures of the big screen during the ceremony.

The graduates get ready to turn their tassels.

More talking.... and then the graduates walked to the front where they received a diploma holder (it was empty) and shook hands with the Important People who were standing nearby. Then they made their way back to their seats.

Jacob disliked wearing the cap. Here he is with his off. It looks like everyone else has theirs on except for him. 

The students then sang the school song complete with hand motions. (Sort of like they were back in 2005 and at preschool)

Finished!

After the ceremony, we found Jacob and walked back to the business school to take pictures. We also took some pictures along the way. I don't have any pictures of the business school, but it's a pretty neat building. It was brand new the year that Jacob started so his is the first class to have its business classes in the new building the entirety of the four years.

The cap was not going back on his head, lol. 

Inside the business school...

We had just a little bit of time to kill before our dinner reservation. I tried to get reservations at Jeff Ruby in downtown Cincinnati but apparently more on the ball people than me had this idea and I could not get a reservation there (in my defense, I didn't wait to the last minute. I tried to get reservations in early February). I was able to get reservations at another of Jeff Ruby's restaurants called Carlo & Johnny in nearby Montgomery. 

The menu was almost exactly the same as the menu at the Jeff Ruby restaurant in downtown. I liked the location of Carlo & Johnny better than JR and I liked the building better: C&J is located in a former mansion and it's replete with many antique fixtures and furnishings. 

The food was very good and we enjoyed indulging in and celebrating with our boy.

The boys both got steak but I ordered a shrimp pasta dish. It was so rich and good. 

Jacob's charm, strong work ethic, and intelligence portend a bright future. We are proud of him!

We will celebrate with the girls when we can all be together. 

Donnie had to work almost the entirety of the rest of the weekend. He has a huge deal closing on Monday and he had to take phone calls, read documents, amend them, be on conference calls, etc. He's hoping to take a day off this week to make up for working on Saturday and Sunday. I sure hope he gets to! I got to do some fun things like bake cookies... to put in my friend's football HOF bag that she lent me. I didn't want to return it empty...

Then I started on a picture project for my brother and sister in law. I'm going to work on a wedding album for them. My SIL gave me a passcode to access their wedding pictures to download. Loved seeing the professional pictures. They were all good; here are a few that we are in.

(The quality of the pics is good- these are iphone photos of my computer screen which is why they don't look super sharp)

Alyssa has the government AP exam Monday morning. She worked on Saturday and then Sunday after we watched church online, her boyfriend, who's also taking the exam, came over and they studied for it together.