Goldie Graduates/Class of 2022

We just graduated our third child from high school. And it's a strange thing to have these big firsts in our lives as parents keep becoming ... seconds and thirds and so on. 

But! These milestones are still firsts for each of our kids experiencing them (like little Hansie just a summer away from bravely experiencing his first day of kindergarten ... which will be my ninth experience of a first day of kindergarten for a child), and it's pretty amazing to get to be a part of the excitement and bigness and novelty of all of these milestones so many times!

Here are some pictures of a few of the things associated with Goldie's graduation:

A banquet for the high school officers and their parents:

Seminary graduation:

This first picture is all of the youth in our ward that graduated from seminary this year (our bishop in the middle). I'm especially fond of this group of kids as I taught them in primary when they were only 5, and then again in Sunday School when they were 14. And then again in the 16-18 year old class! The past few months whenever we meet for class, another one of them has had new news about mission papers submitted, calls extended, colleges chosen, etc. I really love them and will be so sad to have them all leaving our little class this summer. 

(A look inside their folders calls into question whether any of them actually did graduate seminary. 😅)

And here our graduating girls are with their Young Women president Jana Hurst, who was also my team Sunday School teacher until about two months ago. I really love her. And she really loves these kids.

In fact, she and the other leaders took our graduating girls for some celebratory bowling. (Goldie received best granny bowler award. From the pictures sent, I'm not surprised she earned such a prestigious title. ...)

And of course, we can't forget the 11th-hour graduation photos we rushed to take late one evening when it was almost too dark and we had Starling with us crying to be held the entire time. But for all of that, they turned out lovely.