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The Holts traveled to Champaign, Illinois, on May 16, to attend the University of Illinois’ 2010 Commencement Ceremony, which celebrated Katie’s graduation from that fine institution. While she actually completed her degree in last December, the College of Applied Health Sciences doesn’t offer a December ceremony, so we waited until May.

There are more pictures in the gallery, and there is a video of the ceremony after the break (you can see Katie from 1:44:09 to 1:44:20).

Having just completed her final final Saturday morning, Kelly flew into MLI Saturday night. I picked her up at the airport, having already collected the cake, flowers, and other supplies necessary for Sunday’s celebration, and we drove out to Woodhull for the night. Earlier in the day I had also made giant signs for the girls, one welcoming Kelly home, and another congratulating Katie on her graduation. (Kelly’s sign was definitely overshadowed by the dozen or so people who had signs welcoming their family member home from his overseas deployment, but she was only returning from Massachusetts, so I don’t feel too bad.)

We caught up with Mom and Dad for a bit before hitting the sack. Our plan was to depart for Champaign by 6:30 a.m., so we needed to be up early. In what might actually be an all-time first, I was the first one ready to go Sunday morning. (Booyah.)

With only a brief bathroom-and-breakfast stop en route, we arrived in Champaign around 9:30, and met Kaitlin and Robert at the Alma Mater statue. This is a traditional place for graduates to have their pictures taken in cap and gown, and there was a long line. We circumvented it by taking pictures from an angle. (Booyah.)

Having secured the traditional Alma Mater pictures, and some additional photos on the Quad, we made our way to Assembly Hall for the ceremony. It was quite typical, with an address by Special Olympics CEO Tim Shriver. (Mr. Shriver is a cousin to Board of Trustees chairman Chris Kennedy, a point they did not forget to mention, and the son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver (who is, of course, the sister of JFK). Ah, nepotism.) After the speeches, the recipients of doctoral degrees were invited on stage, and each of the colleges at the ceremony asked their graduates to stand and be recognized by the crowd.

For some reason, Chairman Kennedy felt the need to apologize for the recent admissions scandal, a distraction which was followed by a lot of self-congratulatory speeches by members of the Board and interim leadership.

After the ceremony, we planned to tailgate near our normal football tailgate spot, but it was raining. We decided to take cover at Murphy’s Pub, where we enjoyed some pitchers and an order of Irish nachoes. While the rain never really stopped, Dad suggested that we move our tailgate to the parking garage near ΑΚΛ. On our way to the garage, Tom and I stopped to buy celebratory cigars, and we also had a (bottled) beer at Kam’s.

The garage tailgate was great. We had deli-style sandwiches, cake, beer, and champagne—all the necessary ingredients (and more!) for a successful celebration. After a few hours, we went our separate ways: Tom back to Chicago, Katie back to Peoria (where she has finals for nursing school this week), and Mom, Dad, Kelly, and I back to the Quad Cities area.

Congratulations, Katie!