Cam's Graduation/Anniversary Weekend Getaway

Wow, that's a mouth full, but boy did we squeeze a lot into one weekend celebration. The real reason for the weekend getaway (yes, without the kiddos thanks to Grandma and Uncle Ryan who stayed with them at home!) was to attend Cameron's MBA graduation in Indiana from IWU. His graduation ended up being the same weekend as our seventh wedding anniversary so we decided to make a weekend out of it and celebrate in a fun way.

So, to start the weekend off, we headed to Indianapolis, IN for the day to celebrate our anniversary.

We spent time downtown biking along the White River Canal in what they call "surreys" (or side by side bikes) and we got a great view of downtown.

Then we were off to the most exciting part of the day: to eat an amazing once-in-a-lifetime authentic Brazilian dinner at Fogo de Chao's. Cam was so excited about eating here since he served his mission in Brazil and the experience was amazing and pretty close to Brazilian food.

The atmosphere was so fun, every one was in costume, and the taste of the food was delicious. When we sat down, we helped ourselves to a Brazilian salad bar which is mostly fresh vegetables and a few light deli meats and some interesting cheeses.

Then they brought fried caramel bananas, garlic mashed potatoes, and some type of Brazilian corn bread to eat with your main dish which were 15 cuts of different meats= D.I.V.I.N.E.

The way it works was you flip your coaster over to the "green" side and a half a dozen waiters dressed like this...

would bring you each cut of meat on spits until you flipped your coaster to the "red" side which meant, "STOP! I feel like I'm going to burst!" But of course we couldn't stop there. Cam had flan for dessert

and I had strawberry cream. What a way to end the night, and well worth the few pounds we added to our belly's!


Cameron's Graduation Day...
The next day we drove an hour north for Cam's big graduation day!

He said that's when it started to feel like him finishing his MBA was real; what an accomplishment, he's such a great example of dedication and diligence I couldn't be more proud! Here are his other classmates who graduated with him...

...and back at home, my Mom (miraculously, which I was rather impressed with) figured out how to see Cam's graduation ceremony live online so Hallie could see him walk across the stage too! I asked Hallie if she could hear me screaming on the computer, and she said, "No because I was yelling!"

Hallie loved seeing Daddy on the computer, yay Daddy!

Before heading home, we met up with our good friends (who we miss dearly!) from Indiana, the Winter family. It was so good to see them again and catch up. I took a picture of Hallie's best friends, Lana and Rose, and their missing teeth and new cat they got since we moved away.

And Michelle got a kick out of seeing my prego belly.

As if the weekend couldn't get any better, it did. My Mom had painted the baby's nursery for me which was such an amazing surprise! I felt like I had been the recipient of an Extreme Home Makeover!

I found the vintage baseball nursery bedding collection a couple months before so my Mom had seen the bedding when they visited in July and it got her creative wheels turning starting with the pictures and frames she made for the baby's room because as she said, "The walls just had to have something baseball too!" I couldn't have chosen the colors better myself and the "denim" affect she did on the lower half of the wall turned out amazing.


Cam and I have been so burnt out painting the rest of the house like mad so the nursery just got put on the back burner, hoping it would get done before Bentley's arrival, and thanks to my Mom it did!! My Mom is just amazing painting until the wee hours of the morning while the girls slept. Thanks Mom, I can't thank you enough, what a wonderful gift! Next time you visit, no more projects!