Pomp & Circumstance

I had to document this day because it was pretty amazing. It is hard to believe that our firstborn son, Tyler, is old enough to graduate from high school! My mama heart is bursting with pride for his accomplishment but being torn into little pieces at the thought of him leaving the nest. Does this mean I will have to rename my blog now?? Crazy to think we are here at this point. So much can be said of his high school years and all the memories that have been made, but I will stick to graduation night. We had the 7:30pm time slot which really stunk! It was dark outside and hard to find everyone and pictures turned out crummy and it was even a bit chilly if you can believe it. All that aside, the ceremony was great and we were happy to cheer on our boy! I had to choke back tears all night long so as not to embarrass him.

Tyler's Graduation Announcements - I wanted a photo card and Tyler wanted the traditional/formal card so we did both!

Front

Back

I'm glad I took a picture before we left - they ended up making him take off the stickers. They were pretty strict. The "O" is for Orem and #33 was his football jersey number.

Inside the UCCU Events Center at UVU

So I guess I have to document the good, the bad and the ugly to be fair. Our school has some pretty strict rules concerning graduation. You can only wear 1 lei, you can NOT decorate your cap, you can NOT do ANYTHING even remotely CRAZY to draw unnecessary attention to yourself and detract from other students. They take this pretty seriously. For the most part, everyone was pretty calm, however, Tyler and a few others brought their own style...which cost him. It was a damper on the evening but in the end, we worked it all out. We didn't think anything that anyone did was that bad and certainly didn't warrant holding back his diploma, but that's what happened. Even after talking to the principal, he admitted that he would not have held his diploma but some of the teachers get a little carried away holding to the letter of the law. Oh well, what are you going to do!

Tyler snapchatting during graduation

Tyler and his cute girlfriend, McKenna. 

Family Support

The parentals

Grandpa, Grandma & Kirsten Guptill came down from Washington

Julie & Lisa and their kiddos givin' Tyler some love!

The Lolohea/Maumau/Anitoni Bunch

I don't think I got one picture with all of them.

We sure loved having our Polynesian roots here with the leis and the love!

The night was so crazy we only managed to get a picture of one of Tyler's friends, Spencer. I love the look of pure happiness on Tyler's face!

Well, it is FINALLY official! About a week after graduation we were able to go pick up his diploma. 

So, now we look forward to the future. Tyler is taking some time to decide what he wants to do. He was accepted to the University of Utah, Southern Utah University, Utah State University and Weber State University. He won't be 18 until August and also is deciding on when to turn in his mission papers.