We had the wonderful privilege of hosting family from Oregon for the first week of May. My parents flew in Friday evening and we spent the weekend doing "Carbondale Life." Dad and Chris did a meat run, Mom and I did the farmer's market, we had a gym party, church and serving, and finally supper club. We tried out a few local BBQ places for my dad to sample and judge. 17th St. was the first place since it is very close to where we live. Dad says it was "ok," which I tend to agree. But it is always a fun experience to go the original restaurant in Murphysboro.
Our next adventure was a trip to Nashville, TN! We wanted to sample BBQ there and simply go on a road trip. We started the day off with visiting Fort Segara, which was an old Civil War fort. It was really cool walking up the path and looking out over the city of Nashville. It was also fun to watch and listen to Dad and Chris talk about the fort and the military strategies they probably used.
After walking around the ruins we decided to head downtown to Broadway Street. We found ourselves in Jack's BBQ, which according to Grill Master Ken had some of the best ribs. We spent the rest of the day walking around Broadway Street, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and of course finished the day with Mike's Ice Cream.
Wednesday and Thursday the rest of our visitors joined us in Carbondale. Ty and TJ took the train down from Chicago, Audrey flew in, and Karri-ann flew in as well. The house was definitely packed, but it was awesome having everyone all together! (minus Spence and other parts of the Roth fam).
We had a graduation party Friday night and all of our close friends from Carbondale came over to meet our family. It was wonderful being able to finally introduce our Oregon family to our Carbondale family and vice versa, as we talk about each quite a bit to the other.
GRADUATION DAY!
Wow, who would have ever in a million years thought that Chris and I would not only be graduating with a Master's degree, but also graduating from the same program. It was so cool to be able to share that experience with him. I'm sure it is not often that a married couple goes through a graduate program together. I am so proud of him for sticking through it, even when he got a full time job and really wanted to quit school. And the punk even actually beat me to graduating because he officially graduated and I fake graduated! (Thesis in progress...ugh). Anyway, it was very special to have our family be there for the ceremony. Both of our families have been a huge support for us through our lives and being able to share the celebration with them was very important to the both of us. Every single person in both of our families has had an impact on shaping who we are as individuals over the years. It is only appropriate that they celebrate with us at a milestone such as graduating from a master's program!
(And I will truly celebrate when I defend my thesis and get it published...and you ALL have to read it. I don't care if it is boring. And I don't care if you are not interested. And I don't care if you don't like reading. You. are. reading. it.)
And we topped off the celebration with Miranda Staple's famous pies from her newly opened Rule of Pi bakery. They lived up to the reputation.
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