Congratulations!

On Saturday my nephew Bradford graduated from high school.  I am so lucky to live only two hours away, so I drove up for the day.  

Nobody came with me because, even though they all love my sister and her family, sitting through a 2 hour graduation where you only know one of the graduates can be a lot to ask of kids.

Besides, I wanted to go to the temple.

I got to fiddle around with my camera and my zoom lens, which was mostly confusing because I know less about cameras than I do about most things.  Which isn't very much.

Isn't he a handsome young man?

And he was quite a cute little guy, too.  I got to babysit him sometimes when I was in college just an hour away from the university my brother-in-law was going to.

They brought him to my dorm once, which made me the most popular girl in Nielson Hall for about 4 hours.

One summer day, I decided to take him with me as I walked my bike down to the gas station to air up the tires.  I didn't know at the time that 2 year olds have to stop and look at every car tire, caterpillar, sprinkler nozzle, leaf and crack in the sidewalk that they see.  It was a long walk, and he was so tired by the end that I had to carry him while walking my bike.

Being the oldest grandchild, he got a lot of attention.  Once, in the mall, he was watching the guy at Sbarro throw the pizza dough in the air, and was so charming that he was given a free soda.  This gave my brother Bruce an idea for scoring himself a free pair of high tops at Foot Locker.

Speaking of cute, this is his 3 year old brother, Owen.

My sister has 7 boys.  No girls.  SEVEN boys.  That's a lot of merit badges.

My sister does great, though.  They are all really, really, nice kids.  And very smart, too.

And Owen's not the youngest.  This is Patrick being held by Donovan.  Donovan is great with kids.

Oh yeah, and Patrick isn't the youngest either.  At least not for long.  The new baby is coming at the end of June, just 6 weeks or so before Bradford leaves for college.  

Oh, and guess what sex the new baby is?

You could be right.

But, nope.  It's a girl!