Congratulations, Ryne!

Last Friday, we caught an 8:50am flight from LAX to Houston for my brother-in-law Ryne's graduation from Texas A&M. We are so proud of him for graduating...especially on time...as a civil engineering major! Amazing! He has worked hard but he has had fun doing it and we were so grateful for the opportunity to attend his commencement. So, we landed in Houston at 2:15pm, rented a car, and drove 2.5 hours in a crazy Texas thunder and lightning DOWNPOUR to College Station. Seriously folks, nothing makes you feel more Californian than some Texas storm. I was pretty much terrified the whole time and I kept asking Aaron if he was scared to drive in it. (Thankfully, he isn't, and actually, every inch of his homesick Texas heart was loving this crazy stuff they call weather) The drive got a little bit better when we grabbed Chick-Fil-A for a late lunch/early dinner at 5 when we got into College Station. We met Aaron's parents, Grammy, Nana and Dodden, and Ryney at Ryne's apartment where they were just hanging out before heading to graduation. Graduation started at 7 but Ryne needed to be there at 6 so after catching up a little bit, we piled into cars and headed to the arena on campus. As someone who graduated from a big public school, I was prepared for the 2.5 hours of name reading. There was really no speaker--just lots and lots of rows of graduates! For how many people walked across that stage that night, they did a great job of taking care of it pretty quickly!
A few pics from the graduation:


Where's Waldo?

There he is!


Ryne on the Jumbotron!


After graduation, we grabbed some Rosa's (Aaron's favorite) and then headed back to Ryne's apartment to take a few photos before we headed back to Houston:(

Us with the Graduate!

The Echols Gang

All the grandparents

We drove back to Houston because our flight was leaving Houston at 8:20am Texas time. Yep, we slept about 5 hours in the hotel and then returned the car and got back on a plane to LA. We had to get back because all of the law student residents of Aaron's were moving out last weekend and so Aaron had to do their check outs. On Saturday night, we got to see some good friends for dinner at Wood Ranch (mmmm BBQ). We were celebrating our friend's John and Ari's engagement and graduation. It was a great time!

Bride-to-be sandwich

The boys

We spent Sunday checking more people out and cleaning up the apartment because, good news, we are staying in our apartment one more year! Aaron got a job as the Assistant Resident Director on campus next year so he will work in housing 15 hours a week and we get to stay in our apartment! Woo hoo!! We had a lot of people praying for us and that situation so THANK YOU! We are thrilled and extremely grateful. We rounded out a great weekend with dinner with my brother.

This week is another exciting one since Aaron graduates from law school this Friday! We can't wait to see our families and celebrate all of Aaron's hard work. I'm a proud wife:)

Hope you have a great week!

"You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?" Romans 2:21-23