ACADEMY GRADUATION

Soooo the photo quality of this post is incredibly awful. What a way to kick off the re-design, huh? I apologize, I guess I just wasn't focusing my phone's camera or something?? I really need to get me that DSLR.

For the past year Zach has been in the Washington State Patrol's Trooper Basic Academy program-as everyone and their mom knows because it's all we ever talk about! 

Well guess what. He finally graduated on March 14, 2014! The whole process was much longer than we had anticipated, but the day finally arrived and it was incredibly sweet.

His sisters and parents came up for the event and we could not have been happier! It had been way too long since seeing them, and our hearts were hurting. Unfortunately Ashley couldn't make the trip, so we really missed her and her little munchkins. But now that he's able to take time off we anticipate traveling to Idaho more regularly!
The shenanigans started off with a visit to the academy. We were able to see where he had been living, what his day-to-day life was like, and just how intense their training process really is. If you'd like to know more about it, click here!

He also took everyone for a spin in his patrol car around the drive course. Pretty much baller.

The graduation ceremony took place the next day in the Washington State Capitol Rotunda- which is such a gorgeous building!

Afterward we threw a small get together with lots of yummy food including donuts, duh! My talented mother made an amazing (and delicious!) cake for Trooper Bloomfield.

We spent the remainder of the weekend hanging out with Zach's family at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Olympia, & their hotel. Natalie snapped that adorable picture on the right of us with her son Carson, and needless to say I think we look pretty cute (albeit Verizon bars-esque) with a small fry ;)

It's really a shame we don't live closer to each other! We sure miss these guys a lot.