Graduation!!!!

No....not mine, unfortunately.

But, Anthon finally graduated from BYU this April!

I have no idea how he survived this last semester! He worked at the Church Office Building up in Salt Lake 2x a week and in addition worked as a TA.... oh, and I forgot the 16 or so credits he took, mainly business classes.

This kid has way too much energy, but I'm glad he does :-)

Anthon's graduation was the first graduation I had ever attended and it was pretty neat to watch the ceremonies with all the robes, marching, musical numbers, speeches, and handing out the certificates.

Yep, that's Elder Oaks in the red cloak.

But what made this event even greater was that we had family around! Dad Petty came from Colorado, Mom Petty from Italy, Frank and lil' Katie from Maryland, the Bergs from Switzerland, Grandma Petty from Brigham City....and my mom from Germany! Crazy!

The airlines get rich with families like ours! :-D

Because Anthon is too sneaky and too smart, we knew that the Bergs would be there, too and surprise us. We actually thought of surprising them in Heber, but we didn't know for sure when they would be at home....and we were in the middle of finals, so we ended up not doing that. That would have been so funny, though! ...maybe next time ;-)










As many of you know, I had absolutely NO idea, however, that my mom would come, too! I have no idea how Anthon and my mom could keep the secret...but they did. I was totally overwhelmed when I openend the door expecting Anthon to come home, and then saw my mom (and Anthon).

Although things were crazy with finishing up the semester, having family there, moving to DC, and attending the ceremonies, we really, really loved and enjoyed spending some time with our families (Emily, we missed you!). Kind of sad that we all live so far away from each other! Luckily, since we moved to Northern Virginia, we now have Frank & Emily closer to us- yeah!

So, what has Anthon been doing since his graduation?

Anthon was so excited about starting his job with the Department of State, that he didn't even want to take a break after graduation.
We had never been on a "real" vacation together (where just the two of you fly somewhere, stay at a hotel for a week or two, relax, see things,...), so we always talked about doing a cruise after graduation. But looking at our budget and thinking that Anthon could start working 2 weeks earlier (and earn money), Anthon decided to just start working.

Right after graduation, we packed our moving boxes, loaded a huge truck and Anthon moved to DC on his own. I stayed for spring term to get some more credits in and to keep working for a professor from the German department.

Anthon first lived with Frank and Emily for a couple of weeks, then moved to an apartment in Northern Virginia. One or two (?) weeks later, he found out that he would be sent to Haiti and work at the embassy for a month.
A few days before Anthon flew back to DC, I drove out to DC with our Honda and tried to get as much done around the apartment as possible, so that the apartment was ready for his return.
Just a little over a week after Anthon's return from Haiti, he found out (with a 2-day notice before his flight left) that he would be going to Amman, Jordan for a month. Crazy!
Luckily, I'm not going to school this summer, so I could come with him and experience what life in the State Department is like.

Anthon is always super busy, but he loves how fast the day goes by. He really likes the people he's working with, goes out to eat with them during lunch break and tries to get to know them as much as possible. He really, really loves what he is doing and we think that we really want to try to get into the "real" State Department thing where you move from country to country every 2-3 years.


More details about our time in Jordan to follow ;-)