Family Fun!

Last week Grant and I had the chance to go to the Trindle family reunion (my mom's side of the family).  We spent a whole lovely day of traveling, flying to Houston and then driving all the way to Oklahoma City with Danny.  It wouldn't have been too bad, but there was terrible traffic, adding on a few hours to the trip.  When we finally arrived we were able to spend time playing games and chatting with family.

Nice shades Dad!

All of the Parker boys were successful in "face the cookie"

My mom's so talented!  She could do all of the games!

After we noticed the "rival" reunion at the same hotel had a poster, we decided that we needed one too.  Jeff did a great job making it and it followed us around the various reunion locations.

When the reunion ended on Sunday we caravanned back to Houston.  The biggest bummer of the trip is that there was a firework ban in Texas because of the drought, so our fourth of July wasn't fully complete.  I love 4th of July fireworks, especially back home with our special traditions, so I was so sad when Grant didn't get to experience it.  I'm sure we'll get another chance in the future, though, and we still had a good time.

One of my favorite things about going home (besides being with family of course) is getting to eat all of the great tex-mex, traditional homemade foods, and bluebell.  Grant pretended not to like bluebell, but I know he really does ;)

On Tuesday, Grant had to leave me to go back to school.  Even though I missed him a lot, the quality time with the rest of my family continued.  We went swimming and shopping, Stevie started his first job, I got a pedicure with my mom, and the siblings did some fun workouts together.

I'm glad to be back home with Grant, but it still feels like my vacation to Houston was way too short.  And I don't like knowing that it will be quite a while before we get to go back again.  BUT we are really looking forward to our Zinn family reunion in less than a month!

Ward Campout

As most of you know, one of the first times Grant and I really interacted with each other was on a campout we had with some of our friends two years ago.  Ever since then we've been talking about going again sometime.  Our ward activity this weekend was the perfect opportunity.
We had been wanting to get camping gear with all of our wedding gift cards, but at the time other things seemed more important to us so we put it off.  We decided to go with the ward very last minute, so we ran out, bought a tent, and headed up to the site.  We're very pleased with our purchase :)

The couple in charge of our campout did a wonderful job planning!  On Friday night we had dinner and get to know you games (our ward is continually changing so we still don't know many people) and then settled down with campfire songs and stories.
Over half of the attendants from Friday evening didn't stay the night so this morning we were able to really get to know people better since there weren't so many of us.  We really enjoyed ourselves and made some great new friends!
After breakfast, the festivities began!  We had some rotations of really fun activities....

I had to assemble a s'more and feed it to Grant while blindfolded (we won!)

we did relay races in each other's shoes

we played "minute to win it" games

and we worked together as a team

There were many other fun games that we did not document, but overall we had a really great time!

In other news, today is our 6 month anniversary!  It's hard to believe we've already been married for half a year!  After our campout we came home and cleaned up and then celebrated by going to Texas Roadhouse.  We look forward to what the next 6 months have to offer!

our mothers

Today is a very special day where we are able to celebrate our wonderful mothers and all that they have done for us.  Grant and I are both blessed to have exceptional mothers, which means that we both have great mothers-in-law as well!  We would like to take some time today to express our love and appreciation for our great moms!

Mother Parker:
Ever since I was little I have always been "Mommy's little girl."  We've always been close.  I was lucky, or should I say my parents were lucky, that I never went through that teenage stage where I wasn't close to my parents.  My mom has always meant a lot to me and I valued her opinion more than anything.  I've always looked up to my mom and hoped that I would become like her someday.

I remember when I was little and too scared to sleep in my own room, my mom would come upstairs and "lay with us" until my brother and I were ready to fall asleep in his room.  Those are some of my favorite memories.  She would tell us stories and jokes and most nights we would end up laughing until we cried.  I am grateful for all of the learning opportunities my mom would make even when we didn't notice at the time that we were learning anything.

I have learned so much from my mom.  She is an amazing example of compassion, optimism, and seeing the good in others.  I have learned from her to notice the little things people do that make them special.  This has really come in handy as I've been teaching and sometimes struggle to see how my students are cute.  My mom should've been a teacher.  When she was here for graduation she was able to visit my class and they were completely captivated by her.  She is amazing with children.  

I admire my mom's creativity and do-it-yourself attitude.  She's the handyman in the home and always willing to find ways to fix things or do her own projects.  Those are some traits that I wish I would've inherited from her, but I am still learning.

My mom has a strong testimony of the gospel.  She is understanding and loving, which helps her to work with anyone and everyone.  She always strives to do the best with anything she undertakes.

Mom, know that you have a family that loves you.  We're grateful for you and your example and all that you have done for us.  Happy Mother's Day!

Mother Zinn:

It's a pretty amazing feat to go through 10 pregnancies.  The difficulties and hardships of having a baby inside of you for some 90 months your life does say something about you.  (I'm just glad you made it to number 8 :)  I thought I'd put up a picture that I think does a pretty good job portraying these difficult times of pregnancy...

(That baby in there did come out to be 11 pounds...)

I am so grateful for my mother.  To have the patience to raise 8 children is pretty remarkable, and we all turned out to be pretty good kids if you ask me.  And I don't think that is a coincidence.  We all had a loving mother that taught us the principles of the gospel through her example.  One thing I learned from my mother is the importance of loving others through service.  She would do anything for her children and sacrificed a great deal for us all.  And she still continues to be a great influence in my life.

Just look at how we've all grown up over the years!  It just seemed like yesterday that we all still lived under the same roof!

And I couldn't go without giving thanks to my other mothers that helped raise me as well.  All of those times you had to take me to your friends houses and those Taco Bell trips may have been a drag for you but you know you love it too :)

Thanks Mom for all that you've done and continue to still do for your children.  I'm so blessed to have you as my mother!

                                              

Catching Up

A lot has happened since the last time we blogged.  The week of April 11th was my spring break so I was able to relax and enjoy my time away from school.  Unfortunately, I was sick most of the week, but I still enjoyed being able to sleep in and do pretty much whatever I wanted during the day.  My birthday was that Monday and I was very grateful for all that I received.  We had some friends over Sunday night to celebrate and they took me out to lunch on Monday.  My brother also took me out for dinner.  Grant was so great to me and I really appreciate all of the gifts and sweet things I received in the mail!

we realized we didn't have matches or a lighter so I pretended to blow out the candles (the balloons are from my class... they were so great to me for my birthday)

Grant made yummy breakfast in bed for my birthday :)

Granty's sweet gifts (and thanks to Grant's mommy for the wonderful vase)

Last week Grant was able to finish up his finals so I feel like I finally have my husband back.  It's been so nice getting to spend some real time together and not worry about all of the things we have to get done.

This week has been extra fun because I had family in for my graduation!!  It feels like I graduated a long time ago since I haven't been to any classes in the past year, but it's nice to finally make it official.  And it also means I don't have to do any more assignments or get observed anymore for BYU.  Woot woot!!  Here are some pics from the exciting event.

After graduation it was fun to take some time off and spend it with my family.  My mom and I were able to find some cute things to help add some fun to our apartment.  We'll post more pictures of everything soon, but here's a sneak peek:

I love having a husband who wants to be involved in the decorating process!

We were also able to visit Thanksgiving Point while my family was in town and see the annual tulip festival.  It was a little bit disappointing because not all of the tulips have bloomed yet, but they were still beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Thanks Parker family for a wonderful weekend!  

Sorry for the long post, but it's been a packed weekend and we wanted to let everyone else in on the fun we've had.  We hope you all have a wonderful Easter and remember the incredible things the Lord has blessed you with.

Going Short

So I've been needing a haircut for a long time and just haven't gotten around to making an appointment.  My hair has been driving me crazy, but I just kept putting it off and putting it off.  Finally this weekend I decided that I couldn't stand it anymore so I finally got it cut.  Grant's a fan of shorter hair so I decided to go for a pretty drastic change and I got several inches cut off.  I was shocked when I saw the end result and it took me awhile to decide that I like it.  I'm still getting used to it, but here are the end results.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Big difference, huh?  It's amazing how much healthier it feels and how much faster I get through styling it.  I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with different styles.  Here's a picture with part of my hair up:

The only concern I have right now is what I'm going to look like with a graduation cap on.  Only two more weeks until I'm a college graduate!!