Skye and Jared Graduate
May 17, 2004
When Jan was 20 years old or so, his (much) younger sister Skye was about five. One day, Jan told Skye, "You're growing up so fast!" Skye replied: "I'll be in college before you know it!" Skye was right, and in the fall of 2000, she headed off to Grinnell College in Iowa. At Grinnell Skye not only had a great time, she also met her fiancé, Jared Swanson.
In May, Jan and Anya travel to Grinnell with Jan's mom Lyn. This is Anya's first trip without Angela, and the trip's fairly long: we have to take two planes to get to Grinnell from Seattle, followed by an hour in a car. Anya does fine, especially because she's looking forward to seeing her aunt and uncles.
Anya's happy to see her Aunt Skye again
Uncle Chris is always good for a ride on the shoulders...
... or a piggyback ride
After a morning baccalaureate service, Skye and Jared invite us all to a picnic hosted by their friends on the Grinnell campus.
Picnic on the quad
Jared Swanson (standing) chats with his dad, Eric.
Jared tries out his mortarboard while his mom, Marilyn, looks on
The particular campus quadrangle where we're eating has the unusual feature of a train track running straight through it. Halfway through our picnic, a freight train rumbles through the quad pulling car after car of corn syrup. Anya loves trains, and is absolutely amazed by the arrival of one during our picnic. Jan and Anya wave to the train's engineer, and Anya's delighted to see him wave back.