All things considered, it went well.  Not a ton of drama loaded onto my bride.  Which is fairly unusual when we visit my ILs.

When my DW was driving I noticed she would go to a street past where my BIL1 and his family live in order to avoid driving past their home when we were driving between our hotel and MIL's house.  

The graduation was very nice. The weather was beautiful.  Our nephew won two significant community scholarships as well as a full ride paid by his new employer to complete his AS degree in Diesel Technology   The company will reimburse his entire tuition, fees, books, etc.. at the end of each year of the two year program that our nephew successfully completes.  He is paid to attend school M-Th then works Friday and Saturday and is paid for that as well making his 6th work day each week O/T pay.  So the community scholarship money will help cover his rent and living expenses.  One emotional element that came up is that one of the scholarships our nephew won was a memorial scholarship in the name of one of my bride's HS classmates. This was a friend of DW's who was killed in a single vehicle accident when he was on his way home from dropping his GF at her parent's home after he had proposed to her that evening. Small town history stuff. Always a major topic of conversation on IL clan visits.

SIL has badgered my MIL into letting SIL stay with MIL after she leaves her DH at the end of the month.  But.... MIL made it clear that it is her home, her rules, no sleepovers, and the GF is not allowed in MIL's home without MILs prior approval and MIL has to be there.  Yesterday morning MIL asked DW and I to get her lockable file cabinet cleaned out and a lock installed so MIL could put her valuables in it along with her Will, etc... so SIL can't pull her usual stuff. SIL being SIL, recently went after another chance to extort money from family. MILs sister traded in her 20yo Prius for a new Toyota hybrid a couple of months ago.  SIL attempted to "buy" the Prius from DW's aunt for our nephew to use for his college commute.  Apparent their aunt was brutal in her response.  "Your credit is not any good with me, you have not paid a cent what you owe me."  When the aunt was telling that story my bride's jaw hit the floor as her little sister had told DW that she had paid back the aunt when the buyout from her STBX's employee owned company was bought out a number of years ago.  Nope, SIL is full of shit and has not paid the aunt a Cent.  Though I am thrilled that finally someone, besides me, in the IL clan is stepping up and calling bullshit instantly when necessary rather than the usual Emperor's new Clothes ignoring the obvious stuff that has been entrenched for generations.  

DW and I have great hope for our nephew. Unlike our niece who graduated HS two years ago our nephew seems to have a solid head on his shoulders rather than the unfounded superiority complex our niece struggles with. She was one of the many valedictorians i her HS class (That HS grants valedictorian status on anyone with a "weighted average GPA" above 4.0). She has done shit for nothing with her intelligence. She is her mother's DD no doubt about that.  The bovine bride has passed her crap down to a kid that actually had a shot at breaking the cycle.  Sadly, that niece has apparently failed to get past the genetics.

As for 15 valedictorians and two salutatorians in our nephew's class, WTF is that crap?  Back in the day, there was one of each.  Period.  The everyone gets a trophy crap is insanity.  10% of the class are valedictorians.

We leave in two weeks for our nephew's camping trip.  The drama around that is already unfolding.  What is it about some families that drama is the norm?

But as they say, that is a story for another day.

Happy graduation season STalkers.  I hope all of your graduations are of the low drama variety.