Well, it finally happened. Cody graduated from med school and we were all there in attendance. Well, most of us anyway. Dave couldn’t get off work (don’t even ask) and Blane missed his plane (he’s missed three in his short life, I have missed….none. We sort of expect it now. You’d think he would have bought the insurance)
But, the rest of us showed up.
I arrived on Friday and met up with my sister Debbie, her husband Jay, and her son Jacob and fiancée Robin. After checking in at the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson, we went out for delicious sushi. And may I recommend the HIE as a great place to stay if you are in Vegas and don’t want to stay on the strip. Which I usually don’t . It’s an easy drive to the strip, but quiet, good stores near by, and gives one the chance to see another side of the area. Great breakfast too. But next door to IHOP if you must.
And if you need to gamble right now, you can always walk over to Sunset Station
It was hot hot HOT in Vegas last weekend. Friday hovered around 100 and Saturday reached 105. Yikes. I went for a walk Saturday early AM and it was already getting warm.
This nice little trail is right behind the hotel.
Debbie and I spent Saturday shopping. We met up at Old Navy so I could get some T-shirts on sale. (As an aside, as I was proofing this I realized I wrote T-shits and Livewriter apparently thought that was ok, and maybe even funny. I corrected it. Nice try Livewriter……)
Then we went to Quiltique, one of the best quilt stores I’ve been to-after Pine Needles of course.
Then we decided to ramp it up a little and went over to the Fashion Show Mall-first stop-Nordstrom. Duh.
I sent Cody some pictures to guess where we were---
(by the way, I bought him some graduation shoes at the Nordstrom Rack only the day before-phase one of the graduation presents I bought in Vegas)
Debbie bought some cute shoes and a cute shirt-I held back-for now.
We stopped at the shaving store and I bought Cody part two of his presents-a straight razor, strop, and shaving kit that he had mentioned he wanted the night before. And let me tell you, that stuff is not cheap. But I suppose greener than the average disposable razors…..Still. Expensive and the risk of bodily harm quite high.
Grampa and Carol arrived Saturday night and we all met up for dinner at Todd’s Unique Dining in Henderson.
Starting from me and moving forward-next to me is my cousin Lloyd, his wife Betty, dau in law Renee. Then my nephew Jacob, fiancée Robin, sister Debbie and her husband Jay. Carol, Grampa and that little head sticking up is Cody. Yay for us. Dinner was delish, BTW.
They gave Cody a congratulation cupcake. Obviously, my kind of place. (Look closely for little cupcake with candle)
The next day was the big day. The. Big. Day. Although Cody was a bit “meh” about it. (I think he was excited and happy to be graduating, but, he has 3 years of residency ahead, like more school. And it’s uncertain because of the Navy. He might go straight through, or not…..it’s all confusing-but technically, after the ceremony, he’s a Dr.)
So, we all got organized and went over to LVH. A big hotel/casino. Places I try to avoid. It was Sunday, it was crowded. Then add 3000 of our closest friends for graduation and, well, you get the picture.
We waited in line (fortunately, we got there early so we could get in first-some of those families were pretty aggressive in the quest for the good seat-jeepers).
Here’s me and the sissies waiting in line
With Grampa
Grampa’s happier than that. Really.
We got in and got some good seats--
Touro University.
We sat behind the cutest baby ever. Well, at least at that graduation (not cuter than Cora for example, or the other Minnesota babies, but still—I debated putting her up on the blog because some people are understandably hesitant about posting their kids online. But I figure there’s not THAT many people reading this, and I think my audience is a pretty safe venue-so here we go)
Right? I know it. If it hadn’t been for her, we might have been bored after Cody and Maral graduated. Or before they graduated. Because we spent much time entertaining her, and she us. She also did NOT approve of the people yelling at the graduates. Especially those people behind us. She gave them a look. And believe me, there was no mistaking how she felt about THAT.
Anyway, after some sitting and standing and getting some water and a cookie (I’m only human people), the ceremony started.
Here’s Cody walking in-
They get better, really. It was hard to capture the moment with my telephoto lens in a crowded room. But here he is. And see that little head poking up on the right? Maral. Her last name is also a G name, so they got to sit by each other. Those two.
Being the good and obnoxious mother that I am, after they got seated I ran up and got a picture of them in their spots. Close call, Maral is right on the aisle.
We sat through the requisite speakers and the Master’s Degrees in Education, OT/PT, Doctorate in PT, and then the Doctors. The DO doctors.
Here’s Cody getting hooded. I was reading about the proper decorum for doctoral graduation garb because I thought those three stripes were just sort of fly, you know? Like a gang symbol or something. But NO-they are the required decoration for a doctoral graduate. Who knew? (Well, obviously somebody because that’s a long article in Wikipedia)
Maral’s dad hooded her because he’s a doctor too. I guess you have to be a doctor if you want to hood someone. Because I asked Cody why he didn’t have me hood him. Right? Like that would have been so incredibly blog worthy. (I guess it would have been all symbolic and a life event and all, but seriously, blog fodder was #1 on my mind). But he said I wasn’t a doctor. I said I was a nurse. He wasn’t interested in my credentials. Gawd. It’s already all about the doctors.
A little blurry but it’s not bad.
And here’s Cody, moments after becoming a doctor
He’s happy.
After the ceremony we posed for a few (hundred) more pictures. I’ll pick the best. You’re welcome.
Cody and his dad and dad’s wife (complicated but we are calling him dad from now on because it’s easier AND more appropriate)
Us.
Grampa, Cody, and me.
The Doctors. Although my son is handsome and all, Maral is totally the prettiest in that couple.
Here they are in real life. Cody is all about the shaved head thing now because he doesn’t have a lot of hair. My sister said he looked a little “chemo-ish”. I’m like-really? Can we have a little hair? Maral’s hair is lovely…..
We left soon after this and went out to dinner. And by that time I was burned out on the picture gig and so didn’t take any. Dinner was delish though.
We hit the airport the next AM-I wrangled these two into the plane (Carol asked me how I managed to make it so they could walk on the plane and just sit down. Um, it’s called 1st class dude….Jeez)
I made it home, but still don’t quite have my mind back. I left my tablet (it was returned) and my coffee cup (it wasn’t returned but I bought two new ones to replace). I was exhausted for two days but I think now I have survived.
Congratulations to Cody for a job well done.
Looking towards the future at the back of the room. 
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