graduate banquet

the night before graduation, ryan's class had a big banquet.  it was hosted at the former ritz-carlton in pasadena.  it was huge and so fancy.  we felt a little bad ditching all of the company that had just arrived for graduation, but it was nice to have plenty of willing babysitters and have a fun, dressed-up night out together.  

we didn't really get to know too many students during our time at western outside of school, so we had our own little table up front with our friends.

the food was so fancy, but actually really really tasty (except maybe the dessert....a little too fancy for my taste)

it was fun to hang out with the cuff's (asuka and ward) one last time

(ward won a big scholarship/award and had to carry around this little plaque all night)

we got to know cody and trish anderson a little during first year, but they moved up to oregon and then northern california after second year.  we were happy to see them again.

after dinner, we went out and had a caricature done of us.

(we didn't know exactly what she was drawing, but i caught the artist just in time to get her to draw me in a one-piece)

they also had some photo booths set up, so we took advantage of those, too.

they had some dancing and stuff after dinner, but we didn't stay for too much of that.  we just caught a few more pictures to remember our good school friends and headed home for a good night's sleep before graduation day!