Graduation!

Yay! Ben did it! Today he graduated with his Master's in Religious Education. What does a Mormon do with a Master's of Religious Education (other than become a seminary teacher)? . . . He pastors his own church! Just kidding. He does just about the only other thing you can do with that degree, since we have a lay ministry, he becomes a chaplain. Ben accepted a chaplaincy in the US Army; which was our whole goal and the entire reason for even applying for the program in the first place. We have already received our first assignment and report to Fort Knox, KY in August after Ben completes the officer training course this summer. After a combined 15 years and 4 degrees at BYU, we are excited to be moving on with the next phase of our lives and into the real world! We are also sad to leave our family, friends, and home. We've spent the entire 10 years of our marriage in Utah. Well, I have . . . Ben has spent about 6 years of our marriage here due to deployments, internships and training assignments. It's going to be quite the culture shock, don't you think? Here are some pictures of our last couple of days; Ben's parents drove out from Michigan to celebrate with us.

(Warning, Paige is hamming it up in every photo she's in!)

Thursday:

Happy Family

Happy Grandparents

Waiting for the Car

Friday:

Sandy, always seeing the world through rose-colored glasses :)

Yay! It's finally Daddy's turn!

be-hooding

So proud!

Ben's classmates with their program director, he's retiring!

 (minus two who already had to report for military training)

Joseph Smith building courtyard

Yay! The Y

I'm going to kiss you because I'm SO glad you're done!

let's not ever do school again