Graduation

Mr. and Dr. Burkhart and kids! :)

Penny and John (M.A. and M.D.)

Julie and Knox (also PhDs)

I finally graduated with my PhD in French from the University of Texas at Austin! There were many times when I honestly did not think I would ever be able to say that! Brett and I took the kids out to Texas for a long weekend to celebrate my accomplishment and we had a great time! My mom and dad also flew out with us to celebrate. Even my dad and Julie (who live in Australia) made it to the ceremony! We really enjoyed seeing everyone in Austin and of course eating at our favorite restaurants (Chuys, Manuels, Korea House, Amy's Ice Cream, Central Market and we even tried a new place that was also excellent called Fabi and Rossi). We basically ate our way through the city and consumed obscene amounts of chips, salsa, guacamole, and tortillas (freshly cooked like you can find no where else - ok, except maybe Mexico). The ceremony on Saturday was really nice, well, unless you ask Pierce, who did not enjoy it one single bit (wished we'd had a sitter for that one!!!). Overall, it was a great weekend and a great way to finish my time in Austin. We were SAD to leave on Sunday, knowing that we now have no more reasons to go back to that cool city! But, let's be honest, we're also quite GLAD to not be sending any more tuition checks their way... :)

We have a LOT of great pictures, so I'll have to post them on our gallery site soon, because this blog is too hard to put many pictures on.