Senior Sunday, The First of Many...

The first Sunday of Sullivan's senior year is today.  As with tradition, we begin the Senior Sunday series.  Simply put, one flashback picture from the past and one from her senior year pictures each Sunday.  I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane every Sunday just as much as I do! 

Then

An Iconic Sullivan picture...

January 2012

Now

Not the Only One..

Sullivan is not the only one who started school recently.  This sweet one started last week and was kind enough to send a picture on her walk from her new apartment to campus.  

Quinn started her junior year this year at NC State continuing to major in Biochemistry.  She is bound to do great things in this world, and this year will be no exception!  Go crush it, Quinn!  

First Last Day...

It's hard to believe that we are already here and Sullivan's senior year began today!   

It was just yesterday that we had recently moved to Indiana and Sullivan was entering kindergarten...

We blinked way too quickly, and she grew up...

Sullivan was beyond excited to start this year and be back to school again.  It's tradition at her high school that seniors carry kiddie backpacks for the entire year.  Sullivan settled on this horse/unicorn carousel backpack...

It's also tradition to decorate your car for the first day.  Sullivan prepared her car this weekend...

And here is the final product...

It turned out great!

Sullivan also got to school early this morning to see friends and sneak some pictures before school started...

She has some pretty amazing friends!

I have a feeling that senior year is going to cruise by and before long, we will be celebrating her graduation.  Buckle up, we are looking forward to a pretty great ride this year!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

Quinn ended her internship at Pfizer in early August.  She had an amazing summer of growth and learning - developing skills beyond what she expected to do.  In short, she learned how to create and ultimately created an AI bot to monitor manufacturing processes, amongst other amazing things. 

Beyond developing AI bots (which she named Anakin), she networked with Pfizer people and made connections with other interns in her same position.  One of her favorite persons she networked with over lunchtime dates...

She was sweet enough to send me a 'last day' picture....

We are so incredibly proud of Quinn for all the hard work and dedication she put into this internship. She is destined to do great things in this big, wide world! 

London, oh London....

We headed off to London for a few days to take in the sights and scenes and all the things.  We could have easily spent a few more days there, but we used the time and packed in all the things.

We saw toured Westminster Abbey...

I had no idea how ornate Westminster Abbey was inside or how many people were memorialized inside.  It goes without saying, it is a beautiful building.

We saw Big Ben...

Ryan has been to London before so he has prior knowledge, but us ladies were surprised to learn that Big Ben does not stand alone.  It is attached to their Parliament building.   

We did some shopping for Jellycats, because we were in the land of Jellycats.  Each girl got themselves a Jellycat souvenir...

Ryan found a friend shopping...

We took an evening ferry ride up the river to see the sights...

Some liked it better than others...

We also saw the Changing of the Guards.  It was on our list as a must do.  We all enjoyed the Changing of the Guard at Arlington, so we had envisioned something similar.  

Not so much.  We all agreed that it was highly, highly overrated.  So many people - so much pageantry - not a lot of visible action.  

The lady behind Sullivan in the following picture spent the entire time nearly on top of her trying to take pictures.  Every time Sullivan tried to move a bit, the lady moved too.  Sullivan was not a fan of her at all.

We got some iconic red phone booth photo pics...

A highlight of mine was seeing the Horse Guards.  

They serve as a ceremonial guard to St. James and Buckingham Palace.  They are known to be a bit feisty, so there is a sign that is posted that says "Beware...Horses may kick or bite."  

The Tower Bridge was quite the sight to see.  

We actually got to walk all the way across it, which was pretty cool.

The London Bridge was not so cool... very unassuming.

Fun fact... the London Bridge has collapsed or fallen apart four different times.  This is the 5th edition of the London Bridge.  

Although I am not sure what is housed in this building besides so shops on the lower level, I thought the building itself was pretty neat with all the bees attached to it...

We toured Buckingham Palace, but no photography is allowed inside... 

We visited Borough Market to partake in the TikTok famous chocolate covered strawberries.  

Did they live up to the hype?!  1000% yes!  They were absolutely delicious.  

We also visited Camden Market - a request of Quinn's.  We did a bit of shopping and eating and nothing disappointed at all.

Quinn ran into her husband at Camden Market...

A final highlight of the trip was seeing a play.  We told the girls to do some research and see what play they would be interested in seeing.  It took them all of 5 seconds to choose...

We had an amazing time at the theater.  The Victoria Apollo theater has been home to Wicked since September 2006 (so basically most of Quinn's existence).  

The actors were beyond phenomenal.

Early into the London trip, Sullivan quickly quipped, "This city is too peopley! Where is the beach?!"  While London is definitely far from the beach in terms of relaxation and people, I think we can all agree on something.  There were a lot of people, and there will always be a lot of people despite when you visit.  But we are glad that we went, we saw and we did all things London. 

And with that, the two week extravaganza was done.  To say we had a great time would be an understatement.  So many steps walked, so many sights seen, so many memories made.  A trip of a lifetime in the books!