Graduation weekend!

I cannot believe our time in Lexington has come to an end. We have a lot of fabulous memories here and are so grateful to have been here for the past 4 years. Both Lexington and the University of Kentucky have treated us very well! We have been looking forward to graduation for some time now and at times felt like it would never come, and although I'm ready to move on, I'm definitely sad to be leaving.  However, there's something very satisfying about accomplishing something you've worked very hard for and we were grateful to get to share this occasion with some people we love very much!

 

As mentioned in my previous post, I could not have gotten through school without my amazing study buddies.  However, equally as supportive and important in our success were our families and friends! 

Both my parents and Grant's were able to come out and celebrate with us. Thanks for making the long cross country trips, it meant a lot to us!

And then there are the Schiebels (almost family), who I know think we went through a lot with them having triplets, etc., but they went through a lot with us too! Karrie was my go-to when I needed to send a text that I had failed the test I had just taken...just to retract my statement the next day when I got my grade :) She put up with it every semester, haha.
And these little guys were instrumental in me doing well in my peds semester. Everyone always commented that it was the semester they wished they had kids (because we had to memorize so many milestones, etc)...and although I didn't have a kid, I could relate almost everything to these little guys :) When they moved about 16 months ago, Karrie started planning their trip to celebrate graduation with us, and I am so grateful they made it happen!
Before my graduation on Friday, we went to the arboretum and took some pictures...got some pretty good ones! It was so fun to be graduating the same weekend as Grant, we went through it all together and it was fun to celebrate together!

Yes, this is actually our license plate. I feel kind of silly having it on our car, but Grant has quite the license plate collection and we though that having a UK plate with both the degrees we got from there on it would be pretty fun! We've had it for 2 years now and I've had this photo in my mind since then :)

After our photo session, we headed to the Singletary Center for the Arts, where my graduation took place in a large auditorium.  Christa, Rachel, me and Natalie just before pinning!

Pinning was a very nice ceremony...only a little over an hour long, had a few good people speak, etc and got to celebrate with my entire class. A surprise to me was the fact that I was asked to stand and be recognized for receiving a 4.0 throughout the nursing program.

Waiting to be pinned...

"Taryn Rose Layton, being pinned by her husband, Dr. Grant Layton"  I decided it would be fun for Grant to hear his new title when they announced his name :)

And after the ceremony was over, we headed to Abuelos where we had a room reserved. We had some good food, great conversation and heartfelt toasts ;)

Finally, at the end of the day, I presented my dad (really both my parents) with a stole of gratitude...for a lot of encouragement and support in both my decision to go back to school, and also with helping me through it.

Thank you to all of our family and friends, who have been through this crazy journey with us. We love you all and are so grateful for your love and support!