Our Life in the Windy City: Luke's Graduation!

Luke finished school in December, but Columbia holds one graduation in May for all of the year's graduates. So two weekends ago we had Luke's mom, Kathy, and his aunt and uncle, Gail and Torre, in town to celebrate.

It was a great weekend, and Gail and Torre especially appreciated being able to spend time with Kathy, since they are on Luke's dad's side and don't often get to see her.

Kathy arrived first, on Thursday night. Friday turned out to be a rainy day, so we nixed plans to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo, and headed to the Garfield Park Conservatory. Unfortunately, this proved not to be much drier than the zoo, since the roofs are about a hundred years old.

We enjoyed our time there anyway.

On Saturday morning, Luke made us crepes with strawberries and Kathy whipped up some cream.

Later, we took the el downtown, where we met up with Gail and Torre at their hotel. We walked down Michigan Ave. to Au Bon Pain for lunch and to the Art Institute to check out their new Modern Wing.

That night we all gathered at our apartment for Homemade Pizza and the Heath (candy bar) bombe I had made for Luke: a modification of this recipe.

After we all attended church on Sunday, we had lunch at Gail and Torre's hotel, and hightailed it over to Luke's graduation ceremony at UIC Pavillion. It was a long-and at times awkward- ceremony, but I think it's fair to say that we were all very excited for and proud of Luke.

Unfortunately, this is the most decent picture I got of Luke during the whole ceremony. The passing of diplomas was quite hasty.

Kathy had to leave right after the ceremony for her 9-hour drive back to Sioux Falls, but Gail and Torre didn't leave until the next morning, so they treated Luke and I to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's.