Duke MBA Graduation!

He did it!

Nate graduated with his MBA from Duke University.  Not only that, he also graduated in the top 10% of his class!  I am so, SO proud of that man!

We have anxiously awaited this day but we've also sort of dreaded it because graduation means the end of this phase of life that we have loved.  

Before graduation we met up with some friends for a little photo shoot.  Prepare for lots of photos :)

Nate, Joel, Tyrus, Carl in front of Duke Chapel

Izzy, Julia, Lyla, Ruby, Brock in front of Duke Chapel

Ruby and Lyla in front of the chapel

 We were so lucky to have Nate's parents and my stepdad, Rik, to come out for the big day!

The best shot we got of our family :)

Friends from the very beginning.  We truly love these guys!

Hardie's, Oakes', McIntyre's, Wright's

Carl, Tyrus, Joel, Nate

 And of course, us wives had to get a shot of us with the guys caps, because we worked just as hard, right? Right? Anyone? ;)

I LOVE these ladies!

Becca, Haley, Laura, Kelly

 Nate with his amazingly supportive parents.

Jerry, Nate, Pat

 Nate and his girls.

I love my man!

I'm SO happy Rik was able to make it out!

kelly, nate, rik

 And one of Ruby, because it was too cute :)

Onto the ceremony...

I am so proud of Nate.  Not only did he get recognized as being a Fuqua Scholar that day, but the student body president, Deb, recognized him in her speech.  She named 6 different qualities of a Fuqua student and named a student who exemplified each quality and Nate was the example for the qualities Humble AND Brilliant! Being the humble guy he is, he was pretty surprised and felt very honored.  

Deb during her speech.

 After all the speeches it was finally time for the grads to walk.  Sadly, my pics turned out blurry and these were the best I had.

Lyla ran right up to him afterwards and gave him a big hug.

It's no secret that graduations are exciting but also really LONG and at times boring.  So, to kill time, the girls and I got a little silly :)

 One of the coolest parts of graduation was that it was held in Cameron Indoor Stadium where Duke plays all its basketball games.

The women's bathroom plaque.

Ruby was super tired by the end and fell asleep on my shoulder about 20 seconds after I picked her up.

We then ran into Russ Morgan, the Assistant Dean of the Daytime program.  He spoke with us and sang Nate praises, which left him feeling even more honored than before and me and his parents prouder than ever!

Nate and Russ Morgan

After the ceremony, we then decided to head over to Fuqua for the graduation reception.  We were out for about a minute when we felt one drop, then two, and then what felt like buckets of water dump all over everyone.  My camera was out and I hurried to put it away while I ran with everyone to get under cover.  Unfortunately and embarrassingly, nobody grabbed Lyla and she was left out in the pouring rain just sobbing because she was so scared and some grad was trying to help her and pull her under cover.  I ran out feeling like a terrible mother and so bad that we left her and pulled her under cover.  She later said that she was just a little scared and then thought it was hilarious.  

We waited for the rain to stop and when we realized it wasn't going to let up, we found a custodian and grabbed several trash bags so we wouldn't get soaked.  By the time we got everything on and were on our way, it was only sprinkling. 

We headed to the reception and said our goodbye's to some of Nate's classmates.

Nate and Deb (they were on the same team and became good friends)

Nate, Chak, and Deb (teammates)

Nate and the Dean Boulding, Dean of Fuqua

 After the reception, we headed to dinner where my stepbrother Rhett and his family joined, as well as some friends.  Afterward, we all headed to our house for dessert and some great conversation.  Overall it was a great day!

And as a final thought, I am so very proud of Nate and all that he accomplished at Duke.  He worked his tail off, had fun during the process, and made some great friends along the way.  I'm a lucky girl to have such a great guy.