Graduation-Vegas style

I went to my cousins graduation yesterday at the arena in The Orleans casino. It was so weird to attend such a huge graduation ceremony at a casino. When we got there I was shocked to see concessions stand open and selling small bottles of water for $5 and small sodas for $5. They were selling nachos and cheese, hotdogs, and the whole sheebang. It was so vegas.There were vendors selling all kinds of graduation stuff too. Flowers, teddy bears, balloons, necklaces, and graduation DVD's. It was so typical of everything in vegas. Always trying to make a buck.
My cousin, Lea, graduated from a performing arts high school so several of the school groups performed at the ceremony. Lea was a choir major at the high school and her group performed the national anthem. They sang beautifully! The arena was so big that we had to watch the performance and ceremony on a huge screen. Lea is the singer on the top left.
Here is the arena and HOW BIG the whole ordeal was. There were about 580 graduates and they are one of the smallest schools in Vegas!
Here is the schools philharmonic also performing during the ceremony. They were also wonderful.
Here are the graduates collecting their diplomas. Thats Lea giving her principal a big hug! They had two announcers calling names for the graduates, which is a good thing otherwise it would have taken all day to call the names.
Here's Lea on her way up to collect her diploma.
And all of the graduates leaving the arena.
Lea and I outside after graduation.
Here's Ali, Lea, and I all together. I used to babysit for them when I was a teenager and they were little. It's so weird to see them all grown up now. Ali is 21 already....we went out and had drinks together last week...weird. Next thing I know, Avery will be graduating from high school and old enough to sit at the bar. Crazy!
Here's all of the family that are in town for Lea's graduation.
And the graduate showing off her new graduation dress. Cute!
And my cousin and the family. These are the only of my relatives that lived in Vegas while I was growing up here.

CONGRATULATIONS LEA!