Paging Doctor Phillips

Yes, it is official.  I am married to a doctor.  As of Saturday, May 28 Joel is official Dr. Phillips.  Crazy, no?  I am so proud of him and had a great time watching him get hooded and walk across that stage.  The week leading up to the graduation was fun as well.  I'll do it all in one post.

May 19 we headed out from Detroit to drive 6.5 hours to Milwaukee.  Kyper was again a rock-star in the car.  We stayed with Aren and Leah Friday and Saturday night.  When we got in on Friday, we headed to one of the beaches--it was super foggy but cool to be by Lake Michigan for a bit.  On Saturday morning, JP and Katie flew into town bright and early.  We headed to a different beach with all seven of us.  Kyper had a great time throwing rocks into a little stream.  Then the rest of the clan got in to Milwaukee--Joel's parents and Leah's family.  We just hung out at the hotel that evening.  We learned a fun new bean game.

Swimming in the hotel pool

At the beach

Hanging out at the hotel

May 22 was a big day for Leah--she graduated from her speech pathology program.  So, we have another Master in the family.  Congrats, Leah!  We celebrated by going out for dinner that night at a cool Italian spot.  Storms came rolling in, but that didn't stop the 6 of the Phillips.  We headed out to the bowling alley to end the night.  It was so much fun to spend time with Joel's brothers and sister-in-laws.  (I have been super blessed my the sister-in-laws I have gained on both the Phillips and Koning sides.  Love you girls!)

Bowling...look at that form.

Leah walking across the stage

Leah and Aren

Uncle JP and Kyper--throwing rocks into the lake.

Celebration supper

Joel got clams and mussels

Monday, May 23, we helped Aren and Leah pack and load up a small trailer.  They moved from Milwaukee to Holland that day.  Joel and I dropped Katie and JP off at the airport and then drove 6.5 hours to Des Moines, IA.  Kyper again was great!

We hit 100,000 miles on Joel's car while driving from Milwaukee to Des Moines

 Tuesday was a pretty low-key day.  We hung out with Rick and Monique--our amazing hosts.  We also did dinner with our friends Clint and Brandie.

Wednesday was also pretty low-key during the day.  At night we had a party with our old church friends.  It was great to see everyone again!

It is fuzzy, but Kyper and Andy became fast friends

Roger and Kyper

Chris and Rick building the fire

That there is 3lbs of chocolate cake.  Yum.

Thursday, Joel did coffee with a friend and then picked up his graduation garb! How exciting.  I got to hung out with my friend Christia for a little while that morning.  In the evening, we had the SOS graduation (Significant Other Support).  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I graduated from being a wife of a medical student to being a wife of a doctor!  They do this every year, for the spouses and significant others.  It is really quite fun.  I even got a degree that mentioned my hypermobile joints from all the OMM he has given to me over the last four years.  (I hope that doesn't end.)

We are now officially spouses of doctors.  Go us!

Friday, Joel had a morning of lectures--all the boring stuff, but probably good stuff to hear too.  Like, how to repay all our debt...  At noon, there was a picnic for the grads and their families.  It was neat.  We ate with the same people we ate with at our very first DMU picnic.  We made a pretty good choice four years ago in regards to where we sat and who by. :)  Friday afternoon was spent at Rick and Monique's while waiting for family to come in.  My parents, Joel's parents, Aren and Leah and his grandma all got in around supper time.  We had an award banquet to go to, so they took Kyper for the evening.  We had a very nice dinner and it was cool to see all our friends from school.

Scott, Dan, Joel, Eric and Clint at the banquet

Me, Brandie and Chelsea at the banquet

Kyper and I at the picnic

Saturday was the big day!!!  We got to the hall around 8:45 about an hour and 15 minutes before the show began, but we wanted good seats.  It may sound really early, but after we came people just flooded in.  (The students needed to get there at 9, so we figured all the families would come then too.)  We got great seats!  (Unfortunately, I was the photographer and I don't know how to work the camera as well, so the pics are not the best.)  Joel's dad got to hood him, since he was a doctor.  How cool is that?!  The graduation ceremony took about 2 1/2 hours.  After the ceremony, we relaxed.  Joel, Aren, Leah and his dad went hiking at Ledges State Park.  I think the rest of us took naps.  Kyper did not go to the ceremony since I knew it would just be too much for him.  We had a friend from church watch him.  We made sure to get a family picture beforehand with daddy in his graduation robe.

Dr. Phillips and his family

Joel's dad hooding him

Jayme, Eric, Clint and Joel

The guys and their wives.  (We missed Sarah though!)

Joel and I

Chelsea, Brandie, and I after graduation

Rog, Aren and Leah at Ledges State Park

For dinner, we made reservations at Iowa Beef Steakhouse, where you get 20 oz of meat!  (Don't worry you can split it, which is what many of us did.)  It was pretty tasty.  Joel choose the place and it did not disappoint anyone, but him especially. :)

Me, Monique and Rick with our steaks

We left for Michigan pretty early the next morning since we were moving on the 31st. :)  I am typing this from our new home. :)

Thanks to everyone who has been with us through the journey of medical school--getting in and getting through it.  It was hard at times, but not near as hard as I thought it would be.  I think it has a lot to do with Joel's ability to balance family life and work life.  But, I also think it has a lot to do with the prayers that were said for us as well as for all the encouragement we received from friends and family.  I also loved have a group I could belong too as a spouse of a medical student.  Please, don't let your prayers end for us though.  Residency is tough, so we will need encouragement and prayers through this step too.  We are so blessed!