Mighty Max Graduates!

When our kids were growing up, there were some years when we had six or more graduations a year….from kindergarten to college but lately things have been rather quiet on the graduation front. Until this year! Suddenly we have three major graduations. After Noah’s graduation two weeks ago, we next had the pleasure of attending the graduation of our oldest grandchild, Max!  How can we have a grandchild graduating from High School? Wasn’t it just a few minutes ago that he was a our first grandbaby?

This boy has been a treasure since the day he was born! Smart and soft spoken but explosive
and a hero on the volleyball court. Max has been such a perfect oldest grandson for our other 26 grandchildren to look up to!

He’s gone from this…..

to this…..in the blink of an eye!

Max is a giant to be reckoned with on the volleyball court (#23)! How he can get that 6’7”, 220 pound body that far off the ground is beyond me!  Their team made it to the semi final in the state tournament. The cherry on the top is being invited to go to the National Volleyball Tournament in July. His heart is as big as his body and we are so proud of this great young man who will be registering at Brigham Young University this fall for a semester before he serves a full time mission for two years for our church.

On the day before graduation, Shawni met me at the airport and zipped me over to a lunch with Max and Dave and a few of Max’s best friends! I love teenagers! Really! They are so fun and funny!  Love those socks!

That night was Max’s Seminary graduation. After completing four years of religious education which for each of the kids who graduated involved a released time period during the school day for religious education, the kids graduate with their class at a special ecclesiastical ceremony. FYI while they were in China Max and Elle attended early morning Seminary which meant being at their teacher’s house at 6 a.m. every morning before their school started! Kids do this literally all over the world if they are not in a heavily Mormon populated community. This not only reeks of heroism but also creates a terrific reserve of what I like to call grit for their future lives which always requires grit. As you can probably guess, the teachers are terrific and this religious education is priceless! 

Max was one of two student speakers at the program and did a stellar job! Both his grandmas were able to be there and Shawni apparently got so excited about that that she missed the most important part:

Ah…that’s better…that kids it TALL!

On the day of Max’s graduation, it was also Grace’s graduation from 8th grade and I was lucky to be able to see Grace among the “Golden Scholars” (kids who got all A’s and a maximum of one B) during Junior High. It was fun to see her get her reward for being such an excellent student, which is pretty astonishing considering that included the grades she got from spending her first semester of this year at her school in China.

Such great girls!

Guys too!

That morning Grace had invited a group of friends to breakfast which she made herself!

Shawni and I also made a quick swing around the elementary school where Lucy was graduating from the second grade and from her dearly beloved teacher.

Claire was graduating from the 5th grade and we found her in line of all the other students in the school high five-ing (is that a word?) the sixth graders as they wended their way through the school halls bidding goodbye to everyone.

Claire is the girl with the fancy hair….as always!

 

It was fun to see these pictures of Max and his two terrific Pothier cousins who are his age. The picture on the left is those three musketeers as pre-schoolers and now as high school graduates!

  

Max’s graduation from Highland High School along with 800 other seniors was  a sight to behold with parents and friends cheering their graduates on at the Highland High Football stadium!

Approximately 8,000 people flooded the field after the ceremony:

You probably can’t see the tears in Elle’s eyes as she contemplated not seeing her brother in the halls of the high school next year. They are about to part ways after being born fourteen months apart and inseparable since childhood!  She’s next, next year! 

Grace will be there in the halls next year as a cute freshman. Here she is hugging darling Maddie who came back to live with family friends for the last semester to finish high school at Highland after her parents moved to Chicago last year. She just happened to be in the office registering in January at the same moment Max and Elle were checking in after being in China. Long and fun story behind all that but Maddie has become a very good friend to Max, along with the entire Pothier family!

 

It was great fun to see Max surrounded by all his friends, especially the members of the volleyball team. They have become a big part of his life!

Man I love this boy! We’re glad we get him for the reunion in July before he takes off for the rest of his life…and an occasional Sunday dinners with some roommates at our house since he’ll only be an hour away from us while he’s at BYU!  

Just one more thing. Shawni has a new piece of art framed in her house. Translation: LOVE MORE in Chinese! Perfect because this house and everybody in it is a perfect personification of that mantra.