Did I mention it was a busy time for my wife and I this past weekend? Probably only about fifty times now I am guessing. Well it was. We had the distinct pleasure of driving down to Ohio to watch our niece graduate from high school. I still remember when we found out she was going to be our next niece. It was the first time I traveled with my girlfriend (now 
Dang, 17 years...
Given the fact that there was a lot of preparation for the graduation ceremony and the graduation party, we decided to take the day off last Friday and get our weekend started a bit early. We slept in, got up, worked out, and then pointed the truck towards the Michigan/Ohio line. We had to take the truck because there were some tables and chairs that needed to be moved from my sister in laws work to the location of the graduation party.
We pulled into the Columbus area just a little after noon and waited for the rest of our family to show up. After we got the tables and chairs moved, Friday night was a pretty calm night sitting around the atrium of the hotel having some drinks and eating some pizza that we ordered out.
Saturday morning after our walk and the delicious breakfast that I posted about here, we headed to the local Costco to get a couple items including these ferns that we are hoping to keep alive in the planter box that I built a couple of weeks ago. I will write a follow up post about that when I get everything in place.
For lunch we stopped at this cool little place called Katzinger's Deli the original location is downtown I think, but they have this other location near where my in-laws live.
Later that evening the whole family who was in town gathered together for dinner at my in-laws house. They grilled hot dogs, bratwurst, and chicken legs. It was all really amazing, and a great time spent together with family. The food was amazing and we had a ton of laughs and a ton of cuddles with our beautiful great niece.
Sunday was actually a bit of a lazy day as we mostly just waited around for the graduation ceremony to start. They hold the event at the Schottenstein Center which is where the Ohio State University basketball games take place. The local schools basically cycle in and out of the arena as quickly as possible. For example, the district my niece attends has three high schools, so from about noon until 8:30 at night they were holding graduation ceremonies.
It took them about an hour and a half to get through the entire ceremony. I didn't think that was too horrible for having several hundred students in the graduating class. It was a far cry from the 120 or so that I attended and graduated high school with. I couldn't imagine going to such a large school.
I got to sit next to my youngest niece during the ceremony, and because both her parents work for the school district, our niece who was graduating got to have her diploma handed to her by them.
It ended up being a quite beautiful night!
The next day we got up and started to pack our stuff up so we could leave right after the graduation party.
The ladies did a great job decorating for the party and I have to admit, from the time the party started at 11 AM until the time we left around 2 PM, it was a constant stream of people. They actually almost ran out of food from what I heard. It was amazing to see the outpouring of love for our niece. I think it is a testament to just how special of a young lady she is.
We pulled back into our driveway around 6 PM on Monday evening and did our best to catch a breath before we started back to work on Tuesday morning. It was busy, but it was also a great weekend celebrating the class of 2025 and a very special graduate!
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or