The End of an Era

May brought us to the realization that the end was near. Danny's classes were finished and he only anticipated graduation and what was in store after graduation. (He had no finals the last semester of law school!) Bonnie knew the storm was coming, and had been preparing for months. But now was time to ramp up and increase intensity and efforts to: organize, pack, finish house projects like painting and redo the upstairs bathroom, schedule kids' summer activities, take care of prenatal appointments (including ultrasound!) for a while, finalize re-occupying our house we had been renting for 3 years and work on selling our townhouse...and the list goes on. Lexie and Gavin were finishing up their school years in Omaha and preparing to say goodbye, as we all began to do.Lexie had a few fun field trips with her class before she went on her way. (We moved one week before school let out for the summer in Omaha.) I was able to help on her field trip to Gifford Farm at the beginning of May. The 1st Graders had a fun time.
Each child had a turn to try out the rocking horse that not only rocked front to back, but side to side as well. Lexie loved it.

And why is Lexie's 1st grade class all tightly crammed in here...?
They were able to all fit in a 100 year old tree that had been damaged by lightning and been left a very large shell of a tree!
We learned several fascinating facts about the farm animals. Lexie and Savannah were able to get close to the sheep! (The tiny chickens with poofy feathers were our favorites.)
And the kids got to slide down a large slide into a pile of hay before they finished the trip with lunch. What fun!
Gavin's field trip to Lauritzen Botanical Gardens happened to be the same day. We had a good time there with his class. I really enjoyed being able to spend the time that day with each of my school-aged kids.
Gavin's class had grown some butterflies in this net cage, and brought them to the gardens to release them into nature. It was so fun to watch the butterflies emerge and flutter away.
Here's one of the Pre-K butterflies up close.
The train garden is a lot of fun for the kids (and me!) There are lots of model trains running around miniature model Omaha architectural landmarks. What a fun place, we will miss having the gardens in our backyard.
Before the class left, they were able to pot a nasturtium to give to each of their moms for Mother's Day. I even brought it with us on the move and it is thriving in a hanging basket on our front porch!
And one shot of Gavin's whole class at the beautiful gardens.

Our last few days in Omaha were certainly a whirlwind. We had lots of fun celebratory events, as well as a lot of work and effort to pack our entire house into one truck. We began the production on Thursday the 13th bright and early with the ultrasound! We found out we are expecting a girl! Yea! We are balancing out our family.

After picking up the moving truck and some packing, we enjoyed Gavin's Pre-Kindergarten Graduation.His class sang some cute graduation and other songs, then each got a diploma. Here's Gavin with his cute hat and diploma.
Gavin is going to miss his buddy Jackson. I am glad they have had each other to pal around with in class and at our townhouses.
Gavin had great teachers, and we are really going to miss them.
And we are proud of our little Pre-K boy!
The Elder's Quorum came that evening and helped us load most of our belongings into the moving truck. We left out suitcases and mattresses on the floor to sleep on, as well as anything I still had left over to pack. (The odds and ends are the worst!)

The kids thought it was all just another fun game to run up and down the ramp and play in the truck.
Danny's Mom came in Thursday night with Danny's uncle Russ and Aunt Connie.
Friday dawned early for us, and we worked until we met with our other family that had come in, my parents and Danny's dad had arrived for the law school graduation. We decided to enjoy the day with Lexie at her school for the family BBQ lunch. Then we did some more moving work, and off we went to the hooding. No, not the hood, but, well, read on...

Graduate degrees have special graduation robes with colored stripes for their degrees and a hood on their robe. Danny received his Juris Doctorate hood Friday evening at a ceremony just for the law school.
Here he is on stage with the professors who fitted him with his new ornamentation.

And this is the hood, complete with blue stripe and all. With a Juris Doctorate, now he's officially "Dr. Danny."
We had the chance to take some graduation pictures after the ceremony. While it was Danny who received knowledge and a degree, I like to think I was a part of it as I stood by him and supported his education the last three years. While I am sure he did the academic work, it was a joint effort to go to law school and make it work for us. But the sacrifice has been worth it.
And our little family couldn't be more proud of our husband and dad. Great job, honey, we love you and are so grateful for the support you give us!
And of course, Danny's parents were so proud and supported him in all his years of school. It has been wonderful for all of us the see his goals achieved.My parents were glad to be a part of this experience, too! It was nice to have their support and love.
And Danny's aunt and uncle have been so gracious and wonderful to us, and even helped us move when we were down to the wire! It was so nice to have them come out.
Saturday morning was a certain reality. We prepared for a nice day and attended the Creighton University Graduation Exercises. It was a really nice graduation, and it was wonderful to see Danny walk across the podium and receive his diploma. ConGrAtuLaTioNs!
We celebrated with a very nice lunch at Rick's Boatyard overlooking the Missouri River one last time.
We spent the next few hours in Omaha on the last few bits of to-do items and packing the truck. Here is the jungle mural that I honestly finished at 6:30 am the day we moved out. It turned out so fun, I just wish I had been able to finish it sooner so we could enjoy the finished product for longer!
You may need to click on the above image for a larger view, but this is our "measuring stick" molding. Danny tracked the kids' height here for the three years we lived in Omaha. I am so grateful for pictures to remember these things we can't take with us!
And what else can't we move? Friends! We have loved having SO MANY friends in Omaha! The kids especially enjoyed have buddies right outside their door to play with. One last play day, before we shoved off.
And one last glimpse of our family in this place, at this stage of our life, this era we have begun and ended of the law school experience.

We loaded Danny's car on the back of the moving truck...and drove away. Goodbye to all our friends in Omaha, we love you and miss you!
We had a memorable and exhausting drive to Utah, complete with driving rains at midnight and fun folk songs in the car. But we made it to Utah safe and sound two days later and turned to the next chapter in our lives!