Sunday, July 26, 2009

Graduation (finally!)

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So even though the defense  was back in April, we celebrated Joe’s PhD graduation again the day he walked in the ceremony.  His grandparents, parents, aunt and uncle and Myras parents flew out for the event.  We got to take some trips to the coast and to the mountains before/after graduation day!  It was also cool that two of our closest friends were getting their PhD’s at the same time (and one who couldn’t make it to the ceremony because she already moved to Australia).  The ceremony was pretty typical and thankfully we were allowed to leave before they handed out all the undergraduate degrees.  We followed it with a BBQ for all three graduates their families and friends at our place.  Good times all around.  The wives of the graduates surprised the crowd with photo collages (embarrassing actually) and T-shirts to start a feud!.

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Here’s just a few snaps from the day …

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Rooster Rock



We want to try and soak in all the Oregon scenery while we still can!! So a month or so ago we went for a day hike up to Rooster Rock. The peak itself is a bit hard to get a picture of but the views from the top were better than we even imagined!



April 2009

Now that I look back, April was a pretty busy month for us. I suppose most notably is that Joe defended his PhD on April 20th. His parents flew out to celebrate Easter with us and a number of our friends and then worked on a number of projects around the house while he crammed to finish up during the last week. He did take a few breaks to join in the remodeling fun but really Mom and Dad deserve all the credit for these jobs!!


Joe's professor had a celebration dinner/party the night of his defense which was a great way to finish off the day.


After a few days of finishing up some details of the dissertation we took off with Joes parents up the coast of Oregon and Washington and into the temperent rain forest in the Olympic National Forest. We stayed a night at Ocean Shores, Washington and woke up early to find we were in the midst of hundreds of people who came to the coast for the one open weekend of Razor Clam season! Joe's parents flew out from Seattle and then we took the train back to Oregon. You really can't beat the west coast views! Click on the picture below to see a few more!!


We finished off the month when Myra hosted a baby shower for our friend Joani. You can tell we are a bit late posting all this because little Alilson arrived over a month ago!!

Catching up ...


Well considering it's been since Thanksgiving since we posted anything, a little catching up is in order. So of course descriptions of everything are going to be pretty limited but hold on to your hats, cause away we go.....
Farewell to the Chileans:

In December we had to say "goodbye", or at least "So long for now" to a couple of our dearest friends as they returned to Chile. It is time for Pato, Ximena, Bea, and Max to head back to their home and families but nonetheless we had to have a party and a few tears to say our goodbyes.



Christmas:
We celebrated Christmas in a number of places this year. First in Oregon with a couple white elephant exchanges, then in New York and Pennsylvania with our families. It snowed in Corvallis which is a bit of a rarity and caused everything to come to a screetching hult. And last but not least, the Christmas tree we eyed up in our side yard finally came tumbling down and made it's way into the house.



Grandma Franz Turns 90!
It wasn't long after we got back out west from Christmas that we turned around and flew back for a long weekend to help celebrate Grandma Franz's 90th birthday. Short trip but it was a great chance to see the entire family which hasn't happened for a number of years.