Graduation Parties (Sat.)

Today was a busy day.  First of all, it's Cathy's birthday.  It was a very full day but we eventually got around to celebrating the birthday. I found her the perfect t-shirt at my great little antique/flea market store in Princeton that I discovered the other day, which btw is called "Finders Keepers."  In case you can't read it, it is a "Red Solo Cup, I fill you up, let's have a party" t-shirt -- I thought it was spot on for Cathy.

This is graduation season and we had two to celebrate today.  Our nephew Bobby Sullivan (who lives here in Emison) had a son (Braydon) graduating from North Knox Friday night, and our nephew Tom Froeschke had a daughter (Ashley) graduating from South Knox today.  We missed the Friday night graduation, but Joe went to Ashley's graduation along with Lucille, Jim, Dixie, Joe M. and Cathy.  At the same time, I headed into town for a picnic to celebrate Braydon's graduation with my nieces and nephew, and their families.

Braydon got a scholastic diploma and plans to go to VU this fall.

It was great to see Bobby and his family again -- it had been a few years since we had been together.  And his sisters enjoyed spending some time with all of them too.

Holly and her son Jayden, along with her new husband, Brad Dane, were here, and Amber was here with Julian and Emma and a couple of her friends.  Michael and Dana had brought all three grandkids with them from Chatanooga for the picnic (Jayden lives in Vincennes and Julian and Emma live in Arizona), and his mother, who lives in Vincennes, joined us.  Bobby and Jennifer had their granddaughter, Gracelyn, with them since the mother (Tasha) was at work, and their younger daughter, Haley were also here. 

Stacy's husband, Bob, did not join us because he had gone to Evansville to buy a new Harley.  We hoped he would stop by to show it off, but I guess he had to take it to the "chrome" shop so maybe he didn't bring it home.

The kids (and adults) spent a little time on the playground together.

After we had out chicken, potato salad, bean salad, baked beans, chips, brownies and graduation cake, we headed out to the next party, which was down at Decker Chapel -- Ashley's graduation party.  On the way, we came upon this tractor pulling 4 nitrogen fertilizer tanks -- thankfully it did not pull out in front of us.

Everyone had already begun eating at Tommy's when we arrived, so we visited a little while, then the big volley ball game began.

Joe watched for a while, then decided he needed to participate.  Fortunately, Ashley's boyfriend is an EMT and he was there, so I didn't worry too much.

Joe gave it up before he got hurt, although he may not be able to get out of bed in the morning.  Next on the agenda, in honor of Cathy's birthday, was chicken dinner at Ireland, Indiana -- a little town about an hour away that Joe and I had never been to before.  We took a scenic drive through rural Indiana, and had a nice meal at The Chicken Place.

By now it's getting on toward 9:00 p.m., but the town of Jasper is just a few miles on down the road, and Joe and I don't think we have ever been here before either, so we did a little scenic drive through town.  Cathy said this is probably one of Indiana's prettiest towns, and it was very well kept.  We never saw any residential areas that were not well kept, lawns mowed, houses painted, etc.  The courthouse alone was pretty grand, and a Catholic Church on down the street was also exceptional.  The third picture is a historic grist mill right on the Patoka River here (it was closed). 

We finally headed home, it was just getting dark and Joe spotted a deer right beside the road (I missed it).  We had left a vehicle at Tommy's so we had to detour back to his house to pick that up.  By the time we got home it was about 11:00, just about 12 hours since we left this morning.  But the day wasn't over yet.  Jim, Dixie and Lucille got back about an hour before we did.  Jim and Lucille had gone on up to bed, but Dixie had birthday cake with candles all ready for Cathy, so we then had some angel food cake with fresh strawberries, and Joe M. and Cathy had a glass of wine. 

It was a fun day but we were all pretty tired.  The bed felt pretty good!