Graduation Congratulations.

For as long as I have known Thomas, 14 years to be exact, he has always wanted a graduate degree. I watched, and whined, and cheered and supported as we raised three young daughters, struggled through being quite poor, and having Thomas work full time and go to school to receive his bachelor degree.

He got his dream this time around, to be a full time student, but all the work that he had to do to make it happen is pretty amazing. It's no small feat to support a family of 6 and also be a full time graduate student and keep up a suitable standard of living. We truly feel blessed to have been able to have survived fiscally, physically, and emotionally, and we are all SO proud to have had him graduate from one of his dream schools Carnegie Mellon, and receive his MBA

His grandparents flew in from Oregon, his parents from Chicago, and his brother and sister from  Colorado. We were so glad to have them all here to support him and show how proud they were of him. Plus it was great to play with them all weekend and be Pittsburgh tourists.

This was the Tepper mormon crew, we had an unusually large class of mormon students with 5 LDS families attending the MBA program, I honestly wouldn't have survived without these ladies, they really were our family here, and I am so thankful to have had them as part of our lives.

Master Gearhart, man what a STUD!

All of his hard work paid off and he was offered 3 different jobs, we whittled them down and are so happy to be moving to a suburb of Chicago so Thomas can work down town to be a consultant in Price Waterhouse Coopers Capital Markets division.

Here's to another adventure.

Surprise

This would be 7 out of the 8 Rentz Children.

 

This would be my 70 year old father.

I think he's one proud poppa.

This past March I had the opportunity to meet up with all of my siblings, and surprise him for his 70th Birthday. We literally showed up on his doorstep and Utah, sang Happy Birthday and moved in for the weekend.

I believe there is a reason why none of the spouses were too embarrassed they weren't along for the festivities. While we all are a little rowdy as it is, when we all get together, it just might get a bit out of hand. The weekend was full of candy cigarettes, wigs, shooting guns (I may have shot my first AK47)) bowling, and lots of laughs, all of my dads favorite things. I'm so happy that my older siblings set up this amazing weekend and that I have so many fun memories of it. It will be a weekend I will never forget but probably should.

Confessions on Fathers Day.

I'm not the best at always appreciating how good I have it. Case in point, I've been fairly mean to this guy lately, call it stress, call it annoyance, but I'll call it taking someone for granted.

Thomas is a wonderful man, he is the man of my dreams, so how could he not be? Sometimes I obsess over weaknesses instead of focusing on strengths, here are some of his best strengths.

He is an extremely hard worker.
He is very intelligent.
He is witty.
He has a great personality.
He is my best friend.
He is the father of my children, and they adore him, and want to make him proud.
He makes me laugh, and makes me very happy.
When he wants something he goes after it and gets it.
He has always provided for us.
He takes great pride in himself and his family.
He is one of the most loyal people you will ever meet.
He has a strong testimony of the gospel and holds the Priesthood.
He is my best friend.

Ilove you Thomas, you're the best and you're my favorite!

Spring Break

One of the best things about Thomas being in school was that the girls got two spring breaks each year. This year they took a few extra days off as we headed up to mark off another bucket list and visit Niagara and Toronto.

 

The weather at Niagara was insane, one moment it was sunny, the next it was blizzard like with wind so strong it would just about knock you over and the snow would come down so heavily you could barely see. We were as quick as possible taking in the site and quickly warmed ourselves up enjoying ourselves for lunch.  

We then headed on up to Toronto, Thomas served his mission there and it was neat to get to explore the city with him.

 We lucked out with a priceline bid on a hotel in the heart of downtown where we could walk to numerous place and best of all to the subway. The kids were so excited when we found at the hotel had a 2 story water slide that actually went out of the hotel and back in. Not to mention it was Canada's March break, (their equivalent to Spring Break) and the hotel was geared up for kid mania, with gift bags for the children and a ton of events to keep them busy during our down time at the hotel. They really were in heaven.

 

Thomas was eager to share his favorite sour cream chocolate donuts with us from Tim Horton's.

We walked a few blocks to his old neck of the woods and saw where he lived for a few months of his mission. It was really neat to see and hear the stories from that time in his life. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go.

Rainier's favorite part was by far the subway and street car rides we took. Thomas was amazed at all the growth that had taken place since he had gone. There were a lot of projects he used to tract in that were completely wiped out and replaced with large skyscrapers.

We actually spent a lot of time in China Town, our first lunch there went unappreciated by Claire and Ainsley, and as usual, by Rainier.

Luckily we found a bakery next door that was enjoyed by all.

Amongst all the perusing of Toronto we were treated to a St. Patricks Day Parade.

And ended our long weekend with a late night on the town, enjoying good food, city lights, and good times. This will definitely be a trip we wont forget.