PhD Graduation

Sorry for the picture overload, but it was quite an exciting event!

Even before our wedding I was looking forward to the day when Ben would be done with school at Cornell.  When I realized that falling in love with Ben meant moving to a small town in upstate New York, I had to really make sure he was the one...and he was/is!

I moved to Ithaca, New York in January 2010 in the dead of winter.  

It is not the best time to show off how amazing this city really is.

Ben's PhD program in the Business School, in management, was a 5 year program. 

Ben had already completed the first 1.5 years before we were married, so that meant I would have to be in Ithaca for 3.5 years.....

Doable.

Last summer Ben went back and forth, almost weekly, whether he would stay an extra, 6th, year.

Obviously this would have messed up my plan of only needing to stay 3.5 years, so I did my best to convince him otherwise.  

After many different series of events, one of Ben's committee members encouraged him to go ahead and finish after his regular 5 years.  

I was thrilled!

Other than it being three days before William was born and not seeing my husband for the majority of the day/night, it was good.  

 After a lot of hard work and stressful days, Ben landed a job and moved forward towards graduation.

May 26th 2013 was graduation day for Ben William Lewis.

We were lucky to have a lot of family here to help celebrate his wonderful accomplishment.

We had: Ben's parents, my parent's and little brother, my sister's family, and my brother and his new wife. 

Needless to say, it was a party. Ben deserved every minute of it. 

It was so fun watching him in his fancy, red doctoral robes.
The weather was a little colder than our guests would have liked, but at least it didn't rain.  William loved riding on the bus to Commencement.  He was really good at holding on tight!

I am a very proud wife and couldn't be happier for our next stage in life. 

It seems weird to be moving away from Ithaca next month. 

Looking back on it, staying an extra 6th year wouldn't have been all that bad!

But, I am grateful we have a job and know that is where we are supposed to be headed at this time.

...if only we can find the right house to live in!