May 20, 2012. George officially became a DOCTOR!
At 10:00 a.m., with his Doctoral gown donned, he marched down the middle of The Lawn at the University of Virginia to receive his degree, bestowed by the President of the University.
It was a great day full of celebrating.
After staying up until 2 a.m. the night before, we got off to a bit of a rocky start that morning. 6:30 just comes too early when you've only been asleep about 4 hours. Needless to say, everyone was very, very tired.
George's parents and Allen came and I joined them to head over to The Lawn to find some good seats. George and our neighbor Aric drove over separately to get their class picture taken.
Unfortunately, each graduate only has three tickets for family to sit on The Lawn... the rest is standing room only. So we left all three kiddos at home with Amy and Stephen (thanks, guys!). In the end, we did get two extra lawn tickets, so when Jen and Nathan arrived, Jen and Allen got to sit with us, too.
Walking toward The Lawn after riding the bus over.
The Rotunda. A historical building, they are renovating the pillars. I was a little sad the tops were covered, but it's much better than the scaffolding that was there last year.
So we calculated it out--over 6,500 graduates that day with three seats for families--there were at least 24,000 people sitting on the lawn, not counting those standing in the back and along the sides! You can see the Rotunda in the background.
The program they gave out was nice because it explained the significance of the ceremony and the different components. This being UVa, there are a lot of traditions that make up the graduation ceremony.
The Processional started at 10:00, but we got there around 8:30. There was a lot of waiting! It was beautiful weather--very sunny but not too hot.
The graduates lining up at the Rotunda. As per tradition, they start the processional at the Rotunda and end at the opposite end of The Lawn where they are seated for the ceremony.
Woo Hoo! It's time!
Carrying the scepter.
Faculty.
The Medical School got to lead the processional along with the Law students and the Business, I believe. Because there are so many students, they did not walk in a single file line, but rather marched down The Lawn in an organized horde about 10 people wide. I was worried we would miss George, but luckily we spotted each other just in time to snap a couple pictures.
Aric and Chris are both in this picture, too, something I didn't realize until just now.
Love it.
After almost an hour of processing, guess who walked down the aisle?
Katie Couric! She was the speaker for the ceremony. For being 55 years old, she looks fabulous!
And the processional ended with the American flag.
It was a nice ceremony. The President of the University gave a nice speech. We were so far away we couldn't see anything. Thank goodness for these huge screens that gave us a close-up.
Katie Couric gave a
fantastic speech. It was encouraging, but realistic; funny but sincere. She did a great job. Did you know she graduated from UVa too?
After the President conferred the degrees on the graduates, George came and found us so we could head home between the main commencement and the Med School's graduation where he got hooded.
On The Lawn with my doctor!
What were the boys doing during the time we were gone?
Yeah. We didn't have time to get them dressed for pictures between ceremonies and thinking I'd have a chance to get a family picture with George in his robes after the second ceremony, we let them keep playing. I wish wish wish I had just taken some pictures because (unknown to me) George had to turn in his robes immediately after his second ceremony. So, no family picture for us. I literally cried when I found out we wouldn't have a family picture with George in his doctor's robes. I don't think we even snapped a nice picture of just George in his robes. I am still kicking myself.
We did get one of the two of us which is nice.
Funny note: when Jude saw George in his doctor robes, he kept saying, "Daddy's a wizard! Daddy's a wizard!" I thought that was pretty funny!
We had about 30 minutes to eat a quick lunch and feed baby Cole before we had to be out the door again and on our way to the Downtown Mall where George's hooding ceremony took place at the Paramount Theatre (hence no time for pictures). He only had 6 tickets for that one but was able to snag an extra so my mom could go as well. She was excited to be there.
They started the ceremony by giving out awards earned by both students and faculty.
Funny story. See this doctor? Look at his hat. See anything missing? George somehow lost his tassel between the Main Commencement and the hooding ceremony. When we walked in to the Paramount where the hooding ceremony was taking place, we stopped at the front to ask if they happened to have any extra tassels because George Glass lost his. Dr. Wispelwey said he didn't need his and promptly took it off his hat and gave it to us!
I ran to find George who was lining up with the other students. He had somehow acquired another tassel, but when he heard this one was from Wispelwey, he was excited and took that one instead. He loved Dr. Wispelwey, arguably one of the smarted doctors he's met. Thanks, Dr. Wispelwey!
Doctor George Glass with hood and diploma in hand!
Standing ovation for the new doctors!
After the ceremony, I begged the lady in charge of the robes to let us take George's robe home so we could take some real pictures, but it wasn't possible. We snapped a few pictures on the Mall and then headed home to set up for the BBQ.
At home, we started the real celebration!
Lance thought DaddyG's hat was pretty neat.
Shoes! A gift from George's parents.
My gift to George was a book I made filled with advice from his friends and family for the new doctor. It turned out really well!
I am very grateful to everyone who participated and submitted some great advice/anecdotes for the book. We both love it!
George also got this great jacket from his parents to wear over his scrubs when he's working. Jen and her family gave him a very generous giftcard, Nate gave him a PS3 game and some awesome sunglasses, and my mom and Glenn are paying to get his diploma framed.
We did manage to get some family pictures of us all in our UVa attire. Melissa, Rachel and I had the shirts George and I are wearing made custom for the occasion. George's says "Trust me, I'm a doctor" and mine says "I love my doctor". Love it!
Taking pictures of three little boys is quite a challenge...
Almost there... Lance, stop showing off your "guns".
"Jude, look at the camera!"
Almost... almost...
Okay, good enough!
Party time!
You know those table clothes I was working on this past week? They turned out pretty well. I made three so each family could have one: the Glasses, the Baileys and the Elmers.
Allen.
It was a huge group of more than 40 people! We had pulled pork (thanks, Tyler) and all kinds of good things like potato salad, watermelon, and deviled eggs.
Yum!
Melissa and Aric loving on baby Cole. We love these guys! So glad they're sticking around as our neighbors for at least another year.
Some of the Bailey family with Emily and her fiancee Donovan.
Some of the Elmer clan.
More Elmers.
Most of the Glass/Allred family.
Laura and Cole.
After dinner, we broke out the cakes and had the guys pose with them.
I think this cake looks just like George. Love the UVa tie.
George, Aric, and Chris.
Doctors!
The doctors and their wives.
I made these little boxes for the guys, too. I painted them to look like doctor's bags and then filled them with small things like a lapel pin, cuff links that said "trust me, I'm a doctor", a V-Med decal for their car, an engraved name tag for their stethoscopes and a pen light. I also got pictures of each of their families and put them in magnet frames for their lockers at the hospital.
Official cutting of the cakes.
Oh, here are the cookies Melissa, Rachel and I worked on the other night. Cute, right?
After dinner, most of our families went home and our friends came over with desserts to share. It was a great night celebrating with our friends that mean so much to us.
Neil Peterson with Jamie and Rod Smith
Rebecca Peterson with her little boy Kayden and Lori Kimberlin with her boy Andrew.
Chris and Steph Francolm, Rachel Bailey, Emily Jones and her new fiancee Donovan.
Megan Horrocks, Tracy Peterson and Jaclyn Dickinson
Dave Peterson, Brandon Dickinson, Aric and Jayden Elmer
The four of us started Med School together and have been good friends ever since. Emily's husband John was in George's class but tragically died in a caving accident during their second year. Emily now lives in Salem, VA but will be moving to Utah soon because...
...she's engaged! Donovan seems like a great guy! We're so happy for Emily and her cute kiddos Lizzy and John.
Even Frank Block (aka Walrus) came to wish George well. Walrus and George graduated from Biomedical Engineering together and sang in Glee Club together, so they go way back.
It was a wonderful day!
I am so proud of you, George! You've worked hard to get to this point and I know you are going to be a fabulous doctor. I'm grateful to you and the husband and father you are. You bring me and our children so much happiness. Life is good!
I love you, Doctor Glass!
