Clay graduates!

After Clay's successful Ph.D. defense we felt justified in celebrating with a little graduation party as well as participating in the official Stanford commencement ceremonies. It made for one busy but fun weekend with lots of proud family and friends.

Clay wanted to have a traditional Cajun crawfish boil and so we invited everyone over to the backyard to show 'em how it's done. Clay's Maw Maw made the trip out from Ponchatoula, which was awesome.

The crawfish showed up in a big cooler alive and well, if a little homesick for the swamps of Louisiana and confused by the California smug. Howard, our crawfish expert, was nice enough to do all of the heavy lifting as far as figuring out how to turn the cute little critters into something we could actually eat.

Success!

Tony, Christine and Oliver enjoying the party. Christine and Oliver are two of my work buddies from Ernst & Young.

Arezou and Pedram stopped by even though they were just one week away from their (very beautiful) wedding, and Travis flew in from San Antonio. Travis was forced to earn his spot on the air mattress schlepping around food and ice, but he was a great sport and pretended to not mind!

Cousin Annie made a cake!

The next day all of us city-dwellers piled into a van to head down to Stanford for the graduation ceremonies. We were very proud of our parking spot, and very grateful to Cousin Wil for driving.

And so, apparently the Stanford graduation is a little crazy and lots of the students dress up and make fancy props and stuff. It made for an entertaining procession! Which was good because we needed the distraction -- it was HOT.

The Ph.D. candidates made a more dignified enterance than the undergrads. Clay may or may not be one of the guys processing above.

Susan Rice, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a Stanford alumn, was the speaker, and she gave an excellent talk on the importance of service and putting your degree to good use.

The gang with the graduate.

Chris, Clay, Celeste and Joanne

Clay with the in-laws!

It is a Stanford tradition to give your stole to someone who "has provided extraordinary influence and support during his or her experince at Stanford", and so Clay gave me his stole. Which was super sweet although I suspect that he was mostly just really hot and trying to get rid of as much of his extra clothing as possible. But I was still really proud and wore it around all day.

Next we headed accross campus for the Electrical Engineering (EE) ceremony. The alumni association passed out all kinds of snacks and bottled water, which was very appreciated. And then the EE department provided boxed lunches between ceremonies, so we were well fed!

Clay and Maw Maw

Clay chatting with his advisor, Boris, while Wil and I look on and smile and nod.

Boris presenting Clay with his hood.

LL, Maw Maw and Clay

So proud!

And here is the whole gang:
Front Row: Lily Poche, Liz Poche, Laura Lee Daigle, Clay Daigle, Betty Poche, Celeste Daigle Brandom, Paulette Poche

Second Row: Hollis Poche Jr., Annie Poche, Josh Suarez, Christopher Daigle, Laura Verboon, Joanne Poche,

Third Row: Wil Richardson, Leon Branom, Travis McBurnett, Howard Taylor, Gene Box, Leslie Box

The Hoover Tower on Stanford Campus.

Celebrating at the Oasis: LL, Clay, Joanne and Howard

Annie, Aunt Paulete, LL, Liz, Cleste,Josh, Laura, Chris, Clay and Maw Maw