Frisbeeeeeee!

Saturday, May 17, we went to a field by the middle school and played frisbee together for the first time in months! It was so fun and refreshing to frolick around in the grass and sunshine. How did we take these pictures, you may wonder... well, we got our tripod out and one person threw the frisbee and quickly snapped pictures of the other running and catching it. The powerful wind made catching the frisbee extra challenging!

Go Jeff, GO!

Yay! A catch!

Nice save.

Throwing the frisbee sure made our arms sore!

Graduation!

After 3 years (Jeff)/3.5 years (Shaina), we graduated from our beloved school, Southern Virginia University. We were SO glad to have a sunny, breezy day to graduate so we could have the ceremony outside in front of Main Hall, instead of in the gym. The sun was pretty hot beating down on us in those nice black robes, but the wind finally picked up after we graduated and cooled us off nicely... and took Shaina's hat with it. It feels SO good to graduate! We will miss SVU and all of the good times and great friends we had there. SIGH. "Real life," here we come!



Walking buddies-- ready to graduate! We had to walk 2 by 2, and we were lucky to be next to each other.




Only at SVU does the president of the university give you a hug when you graduate. It is so nice to have the president know you by name. Here he is hugging Jeff. (Shaina is walking up the steps at the far right).




Triumphant Jeff after recieving his diploma and hug. In the background, that's Shaina talking with President Smith. He informed us both that we were supposed to have received gold cords for having a high GPA! oh well. At least we have the knowledge.




Shaina walking back with her diploma. That hat would not stay on straight! Her brain must not have grown enough in college...




Diplomacy.




Jeff with all of his fellow philosophy graduates and their professors (nice tassel in the face--it was windy!)




The support crew. Thanks for coming all the way from Washington state, parents! It really meant a lot to us.

Final Stop: London!

Our last stop on our long Europe Excursion was jolly 'ole London. We were there until May 3rd, when we flew back home to the USA. We decided that even though they speak English in London, England is way more foreign than France and even Austria because they drive on the "wrong" side of the road! The little flat that we stayed in was tiny and cute, with an oven and a stove and a little table. We loved going to Marks and Spencer food store at the Green Park Underground stop because they had great ready-made food that we took home and heated up in our flat's little oven. On our first night in the flat, we got there after the office closed, and we spent a whole dark night without electricity because they failed to turn it on before we got there!



Jeff at King's Cross Station trying to catch the Hogwarts Express. They actually made a Platform 9 3/4 at the station with that trolley halfway through it! Awesome



Shaina at the Tower Bridge near the Tower of London. Those clouds look forboding... this was taken during a short break in the relentless rain that we endured nearly the whole week we were in London.



In London, they put up round plaques on former homes of famous people, like Charles Dickens. Sherlock Holmes got his own plaque at 221b Baker Street, even though he is only a fictional character. We loved how they did not say on the plaque that he wasn't a real guy!



St. Paul's under some very thunderous clouds-- it started storming ferociously soon after this picture was taken.



This is an airplane in the clouds above St. Paul's Cathedral. I'm glad we weren't in that plane!



Shaina next to the London Eye-- the world's largest observation wheel. It went SO high! ps--Luckily we went up in the Eye on the only sunny day of the week!



Jeff's masterpiece "postcard picture" with 3 of London's finest: Big Ben, the London Eye, and a red double decker bus.



Us in front of Buckingham Palace. Nice flowers, Queen Elizabeth!



We found an Argyle street!




The "tube" or the Underground was a whole lot smaller than Shaina remembered it. But then again, she was about a foot taller this time than on her last visit to London 10 years ago!



Jeff blended right in on the underground on our way to the airport, reading one of the many free newspapers that they pass out twice a day on the streets. He would have blended in better if it wasn't for that large bright orange backpack propped against the wall!