A Jumpin' Good Road Trip (And a HUGE Big Thank You)

This post was written many months ago but every. single. time. I tried to post it the pictures just wouldn't play. So I'm trying again. It's late, but I mean every single thank you in there. Grab yourself a drink, put your feet up, and read on...

This is a post with far too many pictures. But it took me 6 years to get there so I figure that a whole shebang of pictures is allowed (and this was after brutally culling the amount). EDIT: nope, pictures just weren't playing so there aren't any. Sorry. Just imagine lots of cool ones ok?

Three days after flying in from Amsterdam we set off on a road trip. There was me, Andrew and Langlan, Mum and Dad, Trinny, Connor and Kenzi, and Spaniella. We all piled into 2 cars and headed north for my graduation.

There was much jumping to be done. Firstly in the horse park at Scone where a series of photos have shown up Dad's jumping trick. He first lifts one leg and then the other. Me thinks that is not really classed as jumping.

With other stops along the way, and many musical chairs switching, we arrived in Uralla where we stayed the night, and did a little window shopping.

The next morning it was up and away to graduation day at the University of New England. The first time I set foot on my university grounds was when I was graduating. Crazy. It was a great ceremony. My favourite part was when the Chancellor got all the graduates to stand up and thank their family and friends for helping them get to this day. I would never have made it without every single person who was there, and some who were not.

Mum and Dad who provided shelter, food, transport and a whole lot of love and understanding when assignments were due (except for the occasions when Dad would sneak into my bedroom breaking Mum's orders to leave me alone, but his eyebrows really did need trimming!).

Trin and Brenton who provided internet access, the occasional bed, made their dinner go further when I popped in and shared their kids with me for entertainment.

Then there was Connor and Kenzi who would always happily accompany me to the beach for some serious study break time.

Dani, AKA Spaniella, who was so amazing and gave me her library password over and over again (I could NOT keep a hold of it) so I could continue using Newcastle uni's databases.

Langlan who wiggled and kicked and made life interesting in my last semesters.

And then my husband who forked out the money, loved me through the craziness of distance education, encouraged when I needed encouraging, listened when I didn't need encouragement, gave advice that was spectacularly good and generally made sure his early retirement plan came to fruition.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

Then the ones who weren't there.

Ben Lau for coaxing me through Open Foundation and teaching me what an essay really was.

All the wonderful people at Ronald McDonald House (including the AWESOME Bingham family) who had long lunches with me on Friday and generally kept my feet grounded and my head out of the clouds and in the linen cupboard.

The Morgan's for being incredibly generous and buying ridiculously expensive textbooks for me, providing my stationery and doing mega amounts of photocopying.

Leanne for suffering through our 'dates' together when I always seemed to take us to places for lovers, or alternatively going cycling often with disastrous results.

Kate Sullivan for always seeming to be able to find me in the library no matter where I hid myself and making sure I didn't take law too seriously, or seriously at all (there's nothing like a wheelie chair race in the info common for a bit of fun in the midst of assignments).

Kati Mac for being Kati Mac and always providing a rollicking good time when I visited her in Dublin or she visited me in Amsterdam and making me remember that there's more to life than books (and her wonderful subby-bus driving skills to get me to the hospital after my surf accident).

Cousin Rachey for lunch on the roof of the library, and being someone who was an outsider with me at the Christian student stuff and a mean under-water hockey player.

Linny and Andrew for having The King of Torts on their bookshelf in London which got me into John Grisham which helped to keep me inspired when law got plain old dry and dusty.

Floor in Amsterdam who insisted on studying when she came over when I would rather have chatted.

Rebecca who taught me the wonders of kringloop-therapy and brought so many meals over when studying was tough.

Minette who would call to check how things were going.

Joshua who loaded me up with so many fruits and vegetables that I could eat chocolate and lollies for the rest of my life and still have enough vitamins inside me.

Our fabulous small group who devoured my baking and prayed for my studies.

And like all good Oscar-worthy speeches, I'm pretty sure I've forgotten someone. They say it takes a village to raise a child but in my case it takes so many, many amazing and precious people for me to get a degree.

Actually, make that two degrees!