Goodbye Durham

My mom was adorable and switched her flight to stay longer and help us get things ready for move. It was extra special that she was with us over Mother's Day.

And we couldn't let her leave NC without trying chicken and waffles. We converted her to this strange delicacy.

 And Cook Out being built like 2 minutes from our house meant we went more than we should admit...We'll miss you, hush-puppies.

But mainly my mom was a huge help in making me finally go through stuff, throw away, organize, etc to get everything ready to go. We always love it when grandma comes!

We said bye to our ward. Our Durham ward was pretty much a student ward, filled with Duke law, medical, and business school students. We loved it and I especially loved (ok, it may have stressed me out sometimes) my calling as primary chorister. I'll miss those cute little rascals and making a fool out of myself each week. I can do a mean opera singer ;)

Then the movers came and packed us up. Can I just say how awesome it is to not have to move yourself, especially in the heat of NC? Thank you Microsoft. And Paige still talks about our "moving and packing friends", since she chatted it up with all of them. It was a crazy couple of days for these kiddos, resulting in Deacon bawling on the floor and Paige passing out in a closet. 

Then we had a few last game nights and some very teary goodbyes with friends. And like that, we bid a fond farewell to our little Durham town home. Real job, we're coming for you!

Duke MBA Graduation!

(Warning, totally going to brag about my husband in this post, and post too many pictures)

He did it! WE did it! I can't say enough how proud I am of Ben. It's weird to think back now on the long process this has been. Starting with studying for the GMAT while working full time, taking the test the week I was due with Paige, getting home from work to immediately start writing essays, flying out for interviews, the day we heard back from Duke and me crying tears of relief on the phone, flying out for Blue Devil Weekend, moving to North Carolina, surviving recruiting season and internship, to finally deciding on an offer, and now graduating! But I do have to say, I feel like everyone told us how incredibly hard business school would be and how I would never see my husband, etc, etc. But our two years at Duke have probably been the funnest two years of our marriage! Ben was pretty incredible at balancing everything: having a second kid during fall 2, being consulting club president, LDSSA vice president, workings as an admissions fellow, 2nd counselor in the young men's presidency at church, all while keeping a 3.7 GPA. But with all of this, Ben made it a real point to be home as much as possible with us, and did the majority of his homework at our kitchen table. Besides fall 1, we saw him more than we will ever see him with a normal job. Along with this we had absolutely amazing friends! The kind of friends that you'll stay best friends with the rest of your life. It was so fun that we were all in the same boat, living on student budgets, living in ghetto places, and having young little families. And to top things off, we went to a whole lot of Duke basketball games! We absolutely loved our time and Duke and feel so blessed to have spent two years there.

 Some of else weren't thrilled with the NC heat and humidity that day...we were all very sweaty.

My sweet mom came out for the big day. Due to crazy airline problems, flight be cancelled, etc, my poor dad ended up not making it, but we really appreciated their support!

Walking in with some of his friends, John, Matt, and Garrett.

 Couldn't have asked for a better speaker than Grant Hill for my basketball fanatic husband.

Grant Hill pretty much made Ben's day. As Ben was walking across the stage to accept his diploma and shake hands, Grant Hill noticed how tall Ben was and stood on his tippy toes to be taller, while smiling and telling Ben, "I've got to get on my tippy's to be taller than you"! If you know Ben, you know how amazing this was.
Check out his toes...

 Dean Russ Morgan

Also pretty perfect for Ben that he got to graduate in Cameron Indoor.

These past two years wouldn't have been the same without our LDSSA group. 

And I really don't know how I would have survived without these girls! I'm pretty sure we earned our own diploma :)

Holms, Hamiltons, Millers, Busbys, Candrians, Giles, Ricks (missing Culbertsons)

So proud of Ben and proud to be Blue Devils! We are officially done being students forever! Now on to the real world...

Beach Week in Outer Banks

Beach week is the week between when you finish classes and graduation. This year during beach week we headed to Outer Banks with 12 other families, meaning there were 24 kids under the age of 5....in ONE house. Yes, I was half excited, half terrified of this week. But it ended up being a blast!

The house was enormous, with 14 bedrooms, and was right on the beach, so it was perfect! We got some quality sand and pool time in.

With one of her best buds, Gavin

Deacon and Olivia

While the kids were having a fabulous time playing with so many friends, the adults escaped for some fun of their own. The boys had a golf day (where Ben somehow nailed and shattered the golf cart hubcap), and the girls had an outing out to Bodie Lighthouse, followed by lunch.

We went with a couple of families mini golfing. Basically it ended up just chasing toddlers through a golf course. The fastest round of golf we've ever played :)

One day we went with the Busby's and Bradshaw's to the sand dunes. We even had the bright idea to take a boogie-board (thinking it was the houses', not our friend's) and use it as a sled. The boys were having a fabulous time using Chases's Go-Pro to get "footage" of this....until the board snapped. R.I.P. Hamilton's boogie-board, you gave us some good laughs.

We also ate multiple rounds of Duck Donuts....yum...

 But I have to say the most fun was when the kids went to bed. (Is that horrible to say?) We would bust out those baby monitors and then hit the hot tub, followed by games that sometimes went into the wee hours of the night. Mafia and Greed were our top games of choice. Greed led to Matt performing a Backstreet Boys song for the crowd and Nate having to jump in the ocean. It was VERY intense! We had such a fun time with everyone and it was the perfect last get together with the awesome friends we had at Duke.