Graduation Day

Dave graduated from the University of Utah with a PhD in business on Friday, May 5th. His PhD was a 5 year program, that immediately followed a 2-year MBA so it's been a long road for our family and now we are done!! My Grandma Lambert was in town and came to watch, and Dave's mom came up from Texas, and his brother and his family came down from Idaho. We are so thankful for the many people that were there to support us on graduation day, and over the last several years.

Waiting for things to start - thank you Grandma for going early and getting us these great seats!

Video: The official hooding ceremony. I took a longer video, but accidentally deleted it from my phone, so I'm really glad I had this short clip saved on Facebook. 

Stats on the graduating class this year - Dave falls into the lower right group, although we are not sure who the third PhD was. All the candidates but one from Dave's year dropped out, or weren't ready to graduate yet.

Celebrating Dr. Dave!

  

Soph with cousin Liam, and a worn out Davey

Spring Break

The first week of April was Spring Break for my school! We are going to be traveling most of the summer, and had no plans to venture anywhere for this break. It was nice to just push registration and enrollment to the side for a time and have nothing else to do but spend time with the kids, a little preview of what life will be like in a few months after we move and I'm done working.

MONDAY: We were home most of the day. The kids played outside in the morning while I did some much needed cleaning in the house. Sophie had a birthday party for a friend from church later that afternoon. It was "Trolls" themed and she ate lots of candy, rainbow cake, and had a fabulous time. I was glad the party was during my week off so she could attend.

TUESDAY: I had promised Sophie a trip to Jungle Jim's during my break, and this was probably the highlight of her week. The place was a zoo and really hard to navigate with the stroller, but we still never had to wait more than one cycle for any of the rides. A co-worker also came up with her kids and it was fun to see them and hang out for a bit. Soph took several turns on the roller coaster, and Davey even joined her on a few rides!

I pulled their seat belt so tight, and he still almost managed to escape. I was definitely the first parent through the gate when the ride stopped to snatch him out of the rocket before he climbed out on his own. 

Sophie chose to wait another cycle for the carousel just so she could have this silver horse

While we were having a party at Jungle Jim's, Dave defended his dissertation and passed! HOORAY!! This was the final step of the very long journey we've been on. Now we just need to wait for graduation in a couple weeks to make it official. 

WEDNESDAY: To celebrate Dave's successful defense, we left the kids with a sitter and had a ski day up at Snowbird! It was strange to think this might be our last time here since we'll be moving in just a few months. Pregnancies and babies have really limited my time on the mountain, but we used to come up all the time and have so many good memories skiing here together. 

Dave took carved really sharp to get some good spray for the camera, but it was a little too much and wiped out shortly after this shot :) 

Enjoying the groomers on a nice spring ski day

At the top of Hidden Peak - one of my favorite views in Utah

THURSDAY: Davey took a really long morning nap, so we just hung out at home for first part of the day. After he woke up we ran to Costco for a few things (and some samples) and then wandered over to library story time. There were only 2 other kids there instead of the normal 30, which was both strange and a little nice. Sophie really enjoyed getting to answer every question and being selected as the "helper" for all the activities. After Dave returned home we had dinner and then walked over to Cranberry Park to enjoy the outdoors, since rain was in the forecast for the weekend. The kids had a great time on the swings and playing in the sand, definitely getting a sandbox once we have our own place). 

Daddy assisting with a minor "sand in the eye" incident

FRIDAY: This morning we set out for our weekly grocery run. We normally go on Saturday because of work and I love it whenever I can make a weekday trip instead. The store was pretty much empty, which was good, because Davey was working on his banshee calls and was making sure we knew he didn't feel like riding in a shopping cart at the moment. After naps we braved a trip to the aquarium. I knew it would be crazy because of Spring Break, but our membership will be up at the end of the month, so we are trying to visit as much as we can. We have loved being so close for the last few years and will really miss our weekly trips here :(

SATURDAY: Dave watched the kids in the morning while I went down to Provo for the last student "Gifts of the Heart" exchange. It was smaller than some of the previous exchanges, but I was still able to get a few good things for the kids and I think they are now set for summer. Later I took Sophie to see Beauty and the Beast at the theater near our house. I think she was more focused on the snacks than the movie, but she was happy and that's all that matters. I also had a good time, although I couldn't help but make comparisons and some things just can't live up to the original...

Davey peeling an orange in one of his new shirts

She's a popcorn junkie

SUNDAY: We were surprised to wake up to snow! I knew there was snow in the forecast, but it rained so heavily the day before that I thought it would be too wet for anything to stick. There were probably a couple inches on the ground and Sophie desperately wanted to play outside, so we let her. We might not see much snow on a regular basis once we move and so I wanted her to enjoy this opportunity. She tromped around with her shovel for awhile, and then I joined her to make a snowman. Davey still has no love for snow and was happy to watch from the doorway. 

First Day of School

Dave is officially a Ute! He started his business PhD program at the University of Utah this week and so far everything is going great. For the first year of his program he will be doing coursework, assisting a couple different professors with research projects, and T.A.-ing a class. He was also excited to find out that all first year PhD students will be receiving iPads from the university!

Dave has been taking trax to campus from a park-n-ride near our house, which has worked out really well so far. This Saturday I went down to campus with him to deliver a mini fridge and a microwave to his office that he shares with one other student. We walked around campus a bit and he showed me where some of his classes are. I have to say that after BYU, everything was a little red for my taste...

In for the long haul...

Dave will graduate from BYU's MBA program in just a few months. We can't believe how fast two years went by!! A graduate degree, however, will not be the end of school for us. Dave has decided to pursue a PhD, in preparation to eventually to do research and teach in conjunction with a business school.  A few months ago he applied to 11 different schools - Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Northwestern, NYU, Cornell, Duke, ASU, Texas, Washington, Utah, and UC-Berkely.

Right now we are in that wonderful period of waiting and wondering where we will spend the next five years of our life. As you can see, half the schools would take us out east, but we could also end up in Chicago, Texas, Arizona, California, Washington, or stay right here in Utah.

Dave has already been accepted to one school - HOORAY!! It is a huge huge relief to know that we will at least be going somewhere. We should start hearing back from the other schools (either yes or no) in the next six weeks. I can hardly wait!