MPA

Those are the three letters I now use after my name (in addition to RD) every chance I get!
I graduated with my Masters in Public Administration on December 10, 2011.

My family came to town and they certainly made it one of the best weekends ever! My parents flew into Baltimore and had my grandpa pick them up on the Thursday night before graduation. My dad, grandpa, and uncle were all going to play golf on Friday so I took the train up to DC so my mom and I could hang out all day. We had a super fun day where we went to the Holocaust museum, ate lunch at Founding Farmers, got shellac manicures, strolled through Georgetown, and picked up some fab Georgetown Christmas cupcakes. We then met up with Dad and Grandpa where we ate at Busboys and Poets for dinner before heading down to Richmond.

Georgetown Christmas Cupcakes

This was all right before Aaron's finals so he was busy studying. We made it back to Richmond around 10pm and Aaron was "still at school studying." We stayed up to wait for him to come home. I just couldn't understand why he wasn't coming home yet. My grandpa, who normally goes to bed around 10pm like clockwork (trust me, I lived with him for 3 weeks) was still hanging around waiting up for Aaron. He eventually went to bed though. Finally, Aaron came home around midnight. We were hanging out in our kitchen when a few minutes later, there were a few, very loud, knocks on the door. I was freaking out - it was past midnight and I couldn't fathom who it could possibly be. Our next door neighbor (who we have affectionately nicknamed Muumuu) who gets mad when Aaron plays RockBand too loud was the only person who came to my mind. So I made Aaron answer the door with me close behind. Turns out it was MY BROTHER!!!! I was shocked! He was about to take his finals the following week at BYU so he "wasn't able to come," which I was fine with. So I couldn't believe he flew all the way to Virginia for my graduation. My whole family had pulled one over on me! Grandpa even tried so hard to stay up to wait for the surprise, but he just couldn't do it. Although Aaron was at school studying, he was also waiting at the Richmond airport for Colby, whose plane was late. I am not easily surprised and they definitely got me.

Saturday morning was supposed to be commencement but because of the late night we decided to skip it. We had brunch at Tarrant's Cafe and then headed over to convocation. Probably one of my favorite parts of the entire weekend was the Master/Slave joke. We were running a little late/right on time to graduation and so my fam dropped me off in front of the convention center so I could line up while they went to park. My mom yelled out of the car, in DOWNTOWN RICHMOND VIRGINIA, "Next time we see you, You'll be our master and I'll be your SLAVE." Uncontrollable laughter. Next, I walked across the stage and my parents recruited the three rows behind them to also cheer for me. So fun. Eric and Darien were also able to come down from DC for this part and I was so excited they were there too. I got a fun piece of paper tied up with a ribbon instead of a diploma.

At Brunch

Lining Up

Walking

Crabtrees

Love my mom...my "small" graduation gown fit around both of us.

Proud Husband

Luckily, convocation went a lot faster then we planned, so we had some time to kill before our dinner reservations at 6. So we went to Maymont to tour the mansion and grounds, which was all decked out for Christmas and so fun.

Crabtree Men at Maymont

Lairds at Maymont

Our dinner reservations were at a restaurant called Acacia, which had a fabulous atmosphere but I think we all agreed that the food was so-so. This is where my parents pulled out the big guns of surprises...They had me open up a PDF on their Kindle which had a brochure for...a NEW Hyundai Santa Fe! Apparently they had been in cohoots with Aaron for months about figuring this part out. Their orginial plan was to have the car roll up at the valet after we were done, but that plan was thwarted when Aaron's uncle, who works for Hyundai, told us that they were releasing a new version of the car for 2013. So my parents decided to wait and just tell me they were planning to buy us a car. This car was both a graduation gift for Aaron (in a year) and I. We really needed a car by this coming summer as Aaron starts rotations all over the state. I'll tell the rest of the car saga in a later blog post and what we ended up doing instead. Anyways, I was basically on cloud 9! I was really freaking out about how we were going to pay my student loans off, manage to buy a car that would last, and start saving for a house, family, etc. I'm sure my parents know this, but this alleviated so many of our financial worries and we are forever grateful.

Mom even had fresh flowers for our table. Perfect.

 People at Dinner...Dad's Taking Pictures

Reactions...Shock and Freak Out

After dinner we had to show my family the Tacky Christmas lights tour. Eric and Darien went back up to DC, but the rest of us drove to Richmond's favorite tacky light houses. So much fun, for 5 of us anyway. Grandpa was not so thrilled and at one point even told my dad to "Move along Ron!" when he thought we'd been looking at one house for too long. HA! Oh well, anyways, the rest of the fam loved it and we got out at our favorite house to look around and get some hot chocolate.

Sunday morning we slept in and had lunch before everyone had to head out. We strolled around the University of Richmond campus with Colby before his flight. Seriously, this was one of the best weekends of my life and I had soooooo much fun! I literally felt so spoiled and I can't believe all of this actually happened. Thank you to everyone, but especially to Aaron who managed to keep everything a secret from me even though I snoop through his emails and texts from time to time. I don't know if I'll be so surprised again.