Pomp and circumstance

Look who graduated...

Congrats to my Penn Grad!

We had a fabulous time celebrating Brett's graduation with Angie, Darin, the Gav, Geff and Carol. Angie and Darin arrived late Wednesday night. We showed them around our apartment, enjoyed some New York pizza and caught up on life before going to bed. That Gavin sure is a character - I think he was just excited to be off of a plane!

Geff and Carol arrived on a redeye Thursday morning. Ang and Darin slept in while Brett went to meet the parents at Penn Station. I tagged along to say hello before going back to work. While Geff and Carol caught up on some sleep and I worked, the rest of the gang started their exploration of the city.
Exploring the mother of all Apple stores:

I think they spent some time in FAO Schwarz as well before heading to the Central Park zoo where I met up with them. I think the highlight of the zoo was the polar bear that was posing perfectly for pictures.

Gavin loved riding on the subway, but loved the busses even more! He even sang a rousing rendition of 'The Wheels on the Bus' after getting on the first bus :)

We headed back to the apartment for some dinner before making our way to Broadway to see Grease. Gavin made fast friends with Karene that night (thanks again Karene for spending the evening with him and playing catch for over an hour)! We thoroughly enjoyed the show (though I wouldn't rank it among the best Broadway shows ever) and some New York cheesecake afterward.

Friday I had to go into work yet again and unfortunately it rained most of the day. But, that didn't stop everyone from seeing more of the city. They spent most of the day in the Museum of Natural History and then we met up late in the afternoon for some Mexican at Harry's Burritos.

And of course, you can't visit NYC without an attempt to win some Wicked lottery tickets. Unfortunately, we had no luck, but I guess you can't always win. So instead we headed back to the apartment for a relaxing night of a movie, a game of Acquire and in true Gibson fashion, some ice cream.

Saturday morning Darin and I went to rent the car we were taking to Philly and then we all headed to a session at the temple. The Gav explored Central Park with Jane while we were at the temple (thanks for keeping him entertained for those few hours)! Then we enjoyed a picnic and stroll through the park.

Kath and Tim, that bubble wand sure was tons of fun...I'm sure baby girl G will love taking it to the park in the summers!

And of course, the reason for the visits was to celebrate Brett's accomplishments in the past few years at Penn. We took the LONG way to Philly thanks to Brett's incredible navigation skills :) By the time we got in, we had only enough time to pick up the cap and gown and grab a Philly cheesesteak - Brett taught us all the correct lingo to order like a true Philadelphian (wiz wit, wiz without, provolone wit, etc). They were tasty even if dinner wasn't until 10:30pm!

Sunday was an early morning since Brett had to be in line by 7:45. We got good seats at Franklin Field and were fortunate enough to have perfect weather that morning. The rain came in just as we were leaving. The commencement was fabulous and we provided a great cheering section for Brett. Afterward we went to Huntsman Hall for some drinks and hor'deurves and of course some pictures. We also made it to the bookstore to get some Penn paraphanilia - yes, even baby girl G got some :)

Do you see Brett?

This is when Brett walked across and got his diploma...I was able to capture the shot with his name up on the screen!

Have you ever been the cut-off for a name? Well, for the room assignments for hor'deurves after graduation, Brett was and we thought it was pretty cool. Not everyone gets their last name on one of those signs (and don't worry, Carol took the sign as a souvenier :))

Since the rain came in, our plans changed for the afternoon. We went back to the hotel and at Brett's request, headed next door to Baby's R Us to get acquainted with the many necessities of life that are coming up.

Brett soliciting Angie's expertise on rocking chairs.

After a couple of hours at Baby's R Us we headed to the graduation dinner at the restaurant of Brett's choice - the Melting Pot.
Delicious! Enough said!
And since it was Brett's weekend, we enjoyed yet another game of Acquire before heading to bed. Silent Geff ended up dominating, though Brett argues that it was impossible he could have won by the mere hundred or so dollars that he did!

Just like a little boy, Brett had it all set up and ready to go before the rest of us were even ready! Monday morning was the all school ceremony and again we were blessed with fantastic weather (though a bit on the chilly side). Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC was the commencement speaker.
We headed from there to some restaurant (I can't remember the name) so that Darin could meet up with some old co-workers. While he was with them, we ate lunch and then headed to Sam's Club to stock up and take advantage of a car and extra hands to carry everything up our stairs.

Nice expression Brett!
Then it was back to NYC. It didn't take us too long until we got outside the Lincoln tunnel and sat in 1.5 hours of traffic just to make it a mile into the city. We didn't plan too well on the gas, so while we were inching along at snail pace, we coasted with the car turned off! We were all pretty exhausted from the weekend and cute Gavin entertained himself while we all got some shut-eye. Monday night was pretty uneventful. After getting the car unloaded and something for dinner (more NY pizza), we looked through all the pictures and let Ang and Darin get ready to leave in the morning. Plus Brett and I had to go back to work the next day.

Geff and Carol were around for another day and a half (and unfortunately it rained during their day of exploration, but they had fun at the UN nonetheless) so we enjoyed spending Tuesday evening with them and just wish we could have convinced them to stay just a bit longer. We look forward to them coming again soon :)

Thanks again you guys for celebrating Brett's accomplishments - after all, Geff and Carol, he owes most of it to you!