Bart's Harvard Graduation

I am continuing on with the graduation posts with Bart's Harvard graduation! I just got back from a 3 day, 2 night trip to Boston/Cambridge with Mom, Dad, and Matt. Ben and Kinley stayed home and made it through with a lot of help from some very special babysitters....more on that in another post. It was really fun to get away for a few days and just be with my family. It was a very packed schedule of days with LOTS of graduation events. Definitely not something that Kinley could have done...so, I am glad she stayed home. I am just SO proud of Bart and Olivia and all they have accomplished in the last 2 years in Boston. I can't wait to see what they decide to do and where they decide to go next. I personally hope they stay in Boston for a little longer...not too long though...so that Ben and I can go back together to visit. Lots of pics coming at you and a little day by day itinerary of all the events.

Day 1 - Touring, Cocktail Reception, and Section I HBS Band

We got to town and took a little tour of Harvard and around Cambridge. We could NOT have asked for better weather. It was gorgeous, sunny and 75-80 every day. I can't hardly believe Olivia when she says it is never like that and that they were the most beautiful days all year so far. Where Bart and Olivia live is right near Harvard square and totally beautiful and quaint. I loved seeing the architecture and beautiful townhomes. I loved the river and the bridge over the river and seeing the boathouse and all the rowers. It is picturesque...especially on a beautiful day.

We got to see a couple places from scenes in the movie "The Town" that they walk by every day. One is The Cambridge Savings Bank where they filmed the opening bank robbery scene and the second is the restaurant where they sit outside under the umbrellas and Ben Affleck keeps trying to hide Jeremy Renner's neck tatoo.

Also, this was my first time touring Harvard. It is exactly what you would imagine it to look like. Beautiful, perfectly groomed, lots of landscaping and great buildings.

The movie the Social Network has a quote about this statue: "As the plaque reads, this is John Harvard, founder of Harvard University in 1638. It's also called the Statue of Three Lies. What are the three lies? One; Harvard was founded in 1636, not 1638. Two; Harvard wasn't founded by John Harvard and three; that is not John Harvard. Who is it? A friend of the sculptor, Daniel Chester."

That night we had a cocktail reception to go to for Harvard Business School at a Boston hotel and dinner at Kingston Station where Olivia finally got to join us after a long work day!

Late night after dinner we went to a concert at a local venue for a band that is made of people in Bart's HBS section. They are all brilliant people that are just in a band for fun on the side...such Harvard overachievers! They are really good too. It was fun.

Day 2 - Class Day and Bart's Men's Group

This was a day dedicated solely to Bart's graduating HBS class. We went to Baker Lawn on the Business School campus and heard speakers from their class and former graduates that have done amazing things. Even Simmonds came to graduation too! Such a good service dog in training! Then there was the Oath Ceremony where Bart took an oath to be an honorable and integrity-filled business leader.

After the Class Day events, we went to what was my favorite thing! Bart's men's group that he has been meeting with weekly for the last 2 years had a family meet and greet on campus. It basically is just a bunch of driven, smart HBS students that are all Christians and wanted to have Christian fellowship during their tenure at Harvard. It was so cool to see how the group started and what all they did and learned in the past 2 years. Each person would voluntarily lead a devotion each week and they just did life together. Almost all of them are married or have kids so there were lots of life events to go through together. Then we all laid hands on them and prayed for them and what is next in their life. I loved it....so cool!

Day 3 - Actual graduation Day (I told you there were lots of events!)

Early in the morning was the all-Harvard graduation with all undergrad and graduate students. It was mad chaos to say the very least. We had 3 "seat" tickets and 2 "standing room only" tickets...but, that was really a joke. There are like 1/20th the number of seats as people with seat tickets. Me, mom and Olivia somehow managed to find a seat on the first step of the library in Harvard Yard. There was campus security and lots of area cops there to try to manage the crowd and we made a good friend of one of the cops right in front of us. We had good seats to see the processional (which itself lasted 1 1/2 hours) but, after that long of sitting on concrete...preggo me could not handle another 2 hours so, we ditched that event and picked up lunch to meet Bart at HBS for his last event.

The last thing we did before I hopped a plane back home was see Bart's HBS graduation back on Baker Lawn. This is the event where he finally walks the stage and gets his diploma. It was great! There were 945 people in his graduating class and Bart was in Section I (of A - J) so pretty much right at the end...but, it was awesome to see him finally walk the stage after so much hard work!

We had a loud cheering section! Olivia was standing on a chair pretty close and had the opportunity to get great pics....but, this lady kept putting her hands up right in front of her....right when Bart walked across....whoever you are...I am a little angry.

At least we got some great pics of him coming back around and of course after :)

Bart, we are SO proud of you and thrilled we could be there to see you graduate. Congrats! And we can't wait to come visit again!