The Cottage plus Julie's birthday celebration

Our last vacation was our trip to the cottage.  My parent's had the cottage starting June 3.  So, my little family of three made the trek up north.  Over the weekend, my brother and his wife came up with the two little girls.  Fortunately, it was beautiful weather for the majority of the week.  So, our days consisted of this:
Sleep in or wake up early and enjoy the peaceful morning on the lake.
Eat breakfast
Get our swimsuits on and hang out on the dock.
Eat lunch
Take a nap or go down to the water again.  (Kyper would nap and then we would take the sea-doo out)
Eat dinner
Enjoy the evening outside
Have a campfire, go to Jones and/or play games.
Go to bed
Repeat. :)

A few notes: Kyper loved the lake.  It was full of minnows.  (Or in his words: mimmows.)  I had never seen that many minnows.  The girls and Joel had fun catching them to use for bait for the big bass that were swimming around the dock.  Joel had gotten a fishing license earlier, so he had a great time trying to catch the bass.  Kyper also found rocks that he could throw into the lake.  Also, Joel and I were pleasantly surprised that Kyper did not mind wearing his life-jacket at all.  He learned early on that he couldn't go down to the water without it or without an adult.  He loved that he was just able to walk into the lake and he was quite brave once he got used to it and walked quite a ways out.  Once he felt his life-jacket floating he would walk back.
Going back to the mimmows quickly--Kyper is now obsessed with mimmows.  Every fish he sees, I hear  "mimmows!"

"I caught you a delicious bass?"  (Name that movie.)

Grandpa and Kyper

Peyton catching minnows

Yummy, Jones

Sydney's nerdy smile.

Loon

Master of the Minnows

I caught you another delicious bass.

My little Kyper fish

On Wednesday night, our friends from Iowa came to the cottage--Rick and Monique.  They arrived quite late, so they headed to bed.  We had an excellent breakfast cooked by my mom and then headed to Traverse City.  My parents stayed at the cottage and watched Kyperman.  The four of us, decided to explore a few of the wineries on Old Mission Point.  We went to Two Lads and Chateau Chantel first.  I liked Two Lads better.  I liked the wine better, but I also liked the customer service better.  We had gotten a coupon for a restaurant from Two Lads, so we decided that we would grab some lunch.  Lunch was good.  The real adventures began after lunch.  We got into the car and it wouldn't start.  We tried jumping it, but to no avail.  We ended up having to call a towing company and bring it to a local mechanic that one of the guys from the restaurant recommended.  I then called the cottage and my dad had to rescue us.  It takes a good hour to get to Traverse City, so we had some time to kill.  Joel waited with the car, while Rick, Monique and I walked 10 minutes to another winery--Bowers Harbor Vineyards.  It was my favorite--also the one with the cheapest wines.  We walked back to the restaurant and my dad came and picked us up.  We then headed into town to pick up Joel.  The car would not be able to come back with us that night.  So, the five of us headed to Moomers Ice Cream before heading out of town.
We had planned on going back from Detroit straight from Baldwin, but due to the car problems we headed further north.  Instead of leaving for Detroit right away, we showed Rick and Monique Sleeping Bear Dunes and Glen Arbor--our honeymoon destination.  We then went to Traverse City and picked up our car.  We were finally headed to Detroit around 5:00pm.  We arrived home in Detroit at midnight.

The typical evening view at Big Star.

Wine Tasting--2 Lads

Cool wine bottles

The view from Chateau Chantel

At Moomers.  The cows next door produce the milk Moomers uses for their ice cream.

This is some good ice cream.

Family Picture

Monique and Joel braved the cooler morning and kayaked.

One of my favorite cities and places: Glen Arbor/Cherry Republic

Saturday it was my birthday.  I had to work from 7:30am to 2:30pm.  Joel and Kyper gave Rick and Monique a tour of downtown Detroit.  After I got home from work, Monique and I went shopping.  Joel made my birthday cake.  Rick studied.  We then had chicken parmesan for dinner--so yummy.  We had cake and ice cream for dessert.  I opened my gift from Joel--a sweat shirt he bought in Glen Arbor.  Monique got me a neat jewelry tree while we were out shopping.  We put Kyper down to bed and the cards came out.  A rousing game of hand and foot ended the evening.  It was fun.  Rick and I were partners and we won by a lot--I finally got out of my losing streak. :)

On the People Mover

On the river walk

Joe Lewis Arena

Joel got me this for my birthday.  I was really surprised.  (Not really--he bought it in Glen Arbor and I picked it out.)

My birthday meal

My fun cake.

Rick and Monique headed out early on Sunday morning.  Kyper, Joel and I were able to go to church that morning--although for some reason we thought it started at 10:30.  Who knows why?  We have gone to this church for 4 years (total, not consecutively).  At 10, Joel realized that church started at 10.  So, we quickly got in the car and were 15 minutes late.  Funny, how we were never late when we lived 30 minutes away, but now that we live 5-10 minutes away we were late.

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!