Baby Joe goes to Prom!

Yesterday my youngest brother went to his senior prom. I know what you're thinking....why did they let a 12 year old go to the prom? Except Joe is 18! What?! He is 18 years old, has been in a relationship with the same sweet girl for 2.5 years, is graduating high school in three weeks, going to college in three months and is exactly 10 inches taller than his big sister. All of these things are shocking to me since I feel like he should still be my LITTLE brother...meaning not only smaller, but also into things like Tonka trucks, sleepovers with friends, thinking girls have cooties, all of that. But no...he is big, grown up, would prefer to be driving a real truck and hangs out with a cute girl named Savannah all the time....although he does still have sleepover with his friends fairly regularly. :)

Anyways, enough of that mushy stuff. Without further ado...prom pictures! When I got to the house about an hour before Joe was scheduled to pick up his date, he was eating pizza in the kitchen....in his underwear. About twenty minutes later I texted Betsy a picture of him dancing around in his underwear with Chief...still eating pizza. I opted not to post that picture on here. You are welcome, Joe. I texted her another picture of Joe about 15 minutes before he was supposed to be picking up his date....still in his underwear. My mom will probably be mortified that I'm posting this (Joe might be too...he is the one in his underwear)...so let me put out this disclaimer...his room is usually not that messy (he is a working boy now! No time to clean his room...which reminds me, I should post the picture of his first day of work), also, he had a beautiful four poster bed frame, but asked my mom to remove it recently so he had more "foot room."  Teenage boys....an unusual beast, for sure.

Ok, just for fun...before we get to the undies picture...his first day of work. Look how excited he is! Ha! He is finally employed...and is officially the newest pharmacy technician at 5th Street Dillons. Nobody is more excited about this than my parents. Haha...the baby has a job!




 Now....Joe....15 minutes before getting his date. Boys have it so much easier than girls!

My dad loaned Joe a pair of his nice cuff links for the dance...love this shot of my parents helping him put them on. Also love Joe's face...he clearly enjoys being waited on. :)

 A couple flashback pictures before we dive into the recent stuff...the first one is of Joe at my prom decorating nine years ago. We figured out Savannah was there, too (her mom was/is prom sponsor). And here they are....nine years later going to the big dance together. Love it. The second photo is of all of us Dower kids at our senior proms. I feel like I went to mine just yesterday...and now all my siblings have gone, too. Wild.
 



Ok....now we get to the good stuff. Prepare yourself for a photo overload. I can't help it. Joe and Savannah looked AMAZING!!! Seriously...I wish I had an excuse to borrow Savannah's prom dress. She looked so pretty. I think some of my favorite pictures are the ones where Joe is just looking at her...he told me later he thought she had the best dress and was the prettiest girl at the dance by far. I think he loves her or something. :)















Love this little series of the two of them as they turn around...so cute.






























What a great group of kids!






All the girls looked amazing in their dresses!








The boys are looking pretty handsome, too. :)
























The seniors in the group!




This picture could have been amazing. They were all in the empty pool, but I took too long trying to get them arranged in couples instead of just in a straight line and the sun came out. Hence this photo. Still kind of cool...but not my vision. Oh, well. Sorry if I was bossy guys....or I guess not bossy enough, fast enough. :)


The boys and their mommas...the very handsome boys with their very proud mommas.


I grabbed Joe and Savannah for a few more pictures. At this point they were a little anxious to get to their bus (and Joe was OVER my bossiness)...but I'm sure glad I did. Joe said his favorite picture is this first one. And I would agree...I love it.








The party bus! You can imagine their surprise (and probably Joe's annoyance) when I popped out of the party bus as it pulled up. I had met the bus driver around the corner before he was asked to move to this lot to pick them up. He was a really nice guy who offered to let me stay on the bus and ride to Wichita with them. I was intrigued. Joe told me no. :)










I wanted to get a whole group pic and the best one I got had Sav's eyes closed! Sorry Savannah!


Their entrances at the promenade!


Love how Brody is carrying Kelsey's shoes. What a gentleman!










The future prom queen and king! Joe sent us a very excited text after they were crowned! He was so happy for some of his best friends!


And that's all I've got (actually I've got more...but I have tried to limit myself). I asked my mom and dad to send me a picture from after prom, but apparently they were too busy running the craps tables, and Joe and his friends were too busy winning scholarships and tvs and stuff. Oh, well. :)