Away on Hiatus

As you might have noticed - I've taken a small hiatus from the world of blogging. I'll be in-and-out of the loop for the next few weeks trying to finish my thesis for June 1st deadline! Maybe I can convince Ben to keep updating the blog in my absence, but I won't hold my breath!
I've included a few pictures from Ben's graduation this past weekend! But I let the formatting get the best of me, and I'm not pleased with the page placement (oh well)

We had some of Ben's family in town to help celebrate - Regina, Amanda (+ Nick) and Anna. The graduation ceremony was sort of a drag, but as always in tradition of Williams' family get-togethers - we entertained ourselves with people watching, inappropriate jokes and lots of laughing. For example, three of the four pictures I've included, it took almost 15 minutes to take because we had people walking in the1 1/2 foot space between the cameras and the red wall we used as a backdrop. People were either 1/2 or the full way into the frame before they realized they were "extras" in pictures.

The other picture of Amanda and Nick is from the awesome door to door shuttle bus we took to- and from- the Devaney center. Quite "metro-politian" right?

We had a small intimate BBQ on Friday night with family and friends. Pretty good showing really, around 25 people invaded our backyard and yet - no complaints from the neighbors! We entertained until 2 a.m. (which if any of you know Ben and I, that's approximately 4 hours past our bedtime - so we were pretty proud of ourselves).

On Saturday we ventured around Lincoln, taking in the sites. I love it when Regina and the girls visit, because a) I have an excuse to go shopping, for anything and everything

b) I have an excuse to go to new shops, ie - our new favorite clothing boutique called Blue Velvet. Regina and Anna made a few purchases - which are a few of the cutest, most unique pieces of clothing I've seen. I'll be a more frequent visitor of this place.

c) I have an excuse to cook - most of my recipes don't work well for 2 people.

It was absolutely beautiful this weekend, we spent a lot of time outside eating, playing hill-billy horseshoes, roping the dummy, etc. Saturday we showed everyone the Haymarket area in Lincoln (one of my favorites) and ate Cajun food at Buzzard Billy's. The highlight of the night was probably breaking Nick in - we typically play Trivial Pursuit or some other board game at least one night everytime the Williams' get together. Although we were missing a few key players (Craig, Lyndsey and Matt) - I think he got a "sneak peek" at what it takes to hang with us.

We've got a busy week, Ben and I are headed in opposite directions for "business trips" for school and then travelling on the weekend to graduations back at my folks!

Other exciting news to report: The first show of the season for my sister Kait and cousin Shelby was rather successful. At the Russell Co. Spring Show - Shelby's big wether (I'll post pictures soon) was Champion Market Lamb and she also had Res. Champion Ewe Lamb (both lambs from Diamond W Club Lambs (Craig and Regina Williams). Kait had a second place lamb and won a class with the gilt (previously pictured in older blog) Grady and Ben (and Kait) jointly own. In addition, she was 5th in junior showmanship (swine) which is AWESOME for her first year in 4H and first ever REAL (not mini-4-H; show-and-tell; etc.) showmanship contest.