Lea Lys, Halla and Xavier: State College

Graduation a.k.a. The Harry Potter Convention

The ultimate goal of our trip: mamma's PhD graduation from Penn State. Gown and square hat on, mommy is ready to receive her diploma while daddy and I watch her from a distance. It is funny yo see all those people wearing strange gowns and hats: depending on where they graduated, accompanying professors wear different color gowns and sometimes different hats. It feels like we are at a Harry Potter convention!

All graduates and their advisor walk in: so many people! I had a hard time spotting mommy, they all look the same. Fortunately, Mark, her advisor, was way taller than everybody else, easy to notice.

Here we are, Mamma and Mark found us in the crowd. They thought I looked funny from a distance, with my pink bear suit held by Papa in the carrier.

Let's play a game: where is Mamma? Me, me, me, I know! Everybody in the Bryce Jordan Center sort of knew where I was too, I could not help singing loud during the ceremony.

Graham Spanier, the President of the University giving a speech. He explained why everybody was dressed like Harry Potter, something to do with the Middle Ages...

With Mark, Halla's advisor. Can I get a square hat too?

Mamma is a doctor now. Do you think she'll be able to diagnose my diseases?

Mamma is giving a speech: she was the star of the day. I could not attend, I was quite tired after the ceremony and went to bed.

Liz and Heath joined us during the graduation ceremony: they explained a lot of things to daddy, he is not used to such a thing in France.

Wei really wanted a photo with mommy wearing her gown. The blue scarf thing is a little off but who cares?

Just before leaving State College, the uber-classic photo with the Nittany Lion. What do you think of me as a little bear on a big lion?

The whole family. I am sure we will come back sooner than later, a big part of our history is here.

Back to the roots, where everything began.

State College is where mamma lived for the past 5 years, daddy was there at some point too. That's where they met, got married and learnt that I was on my way to join their little family. I grew up for 8 months in the area before moving to France.

State College is also the first reason for this long trip to the US: mamma will attend her PhD graduation there in a few days. But first, time for a big reunion with all of mom and dad's friends that are still living in the area. So many good memories!

We all stayed at Mark's, mom's professor. He even had a party organized for us the night of our arrival.

Lunch with Jocelyn outside Kern building, just like in the old days. I love when she talks: for some reason, I find it very funny and laugh like crazy.

We had to try the new additions to the YMCA climbing wall. Mamma is doing great on that new crack...

... but not so great on the box anymore. My fault, her abs are still very weak because of the whole pregnancy thing. I am sure she will get super strong again very soon.

Outside Rec Hall, ready to go for lunch with all of mamma's old labmates. We could not be happier!

Can you see I am trying to eat the cell phone toy: I still have to figure out why phones have to be so close to the mouth and not be eaten. What are they for then?

The whole Motor Control Lab enjoying fries. They were almost more babies and kids than grown-ups.

Sabrina and Jocelyne had organized this wonderful Pizza BBQ just for us 3. So many people stopped by, we all had a blast that night. Wherever we and they end up living in the future, we really have to go and visit them, it would be a shame to lose such amazing friends.

Outside Sabrina's house, ready to BBQ. Maybe I can have my own pizza too: do they have infant milk as a topping?

Adriana, Ale and their twins Vinicius and Luiza. They are just 6 weeks older than me.

Bea and her husband Alex: she made the trip from DC to spend the week-end with us.

Sidney had a lot of success holding me.

Kirill, almost ready to start grad school next semester

Ieva, Jim (thank you so much for the 2 holds to build our hangboard) and Aaron

Mike. He got me this wonderful stuffed dragon, huuuuuuge! I'll have to show it to you someday.

Brenda

Kim

Sabrina, very good at taking care of the pizzas on the bbq. Fun concept and very good food.

Bob

Brenda has very tasty fingers. I hope she doesn't mind having slobber all over her.

I got tired during the evening and had to go to "laundry-basket". Mamma and Papa did not bring my bed so we had to improvise and make one out of a laundry basket: just the right size and super comfy.