Mark Andrew

Well this trip was mostly all about this hunk...

I flew in just in time to see him graduate from High school. 

We were so proud of him. I can't believe how fast time flies, I was just looking at pictures from our graduations and Mark is this little boy..

After graduation, the final countdown to the Mission was happening. We basically just enjoyed every moment we could with Mark. Real games, food runs, chilling at the park, campfire, shopping, and going to the temple.

This is one of my favorite pictures and is in the process of going in a frame. All of these amazing friends came and supported Mark for his farewell talk. He has been their 'little brother' one time or another in the past six years and it was great to have a little reunion in honor of Mark on his special day. From giving Mark a ride home from school, taking him to piano lessons, coaching his junior jazz team, to just chilling with us on a Friday night...

Along with Mark's special day, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. It was a special day altogether.

Such an exciting, bittersweet, blur of a day. I will never forget the spirit that was felt the night before Mark left when he was set apart in our family room and we all had a little testimony meeting. To hear what my closest family members believed and how much they loved the gospel was inspiring. Including why Mark was about to serve 2 years of his life and hearing the testimony that he will bear to many people in Houston was incredible. A night for the books. 

In other news:

went to the Payson temple open house with Shaun's family. When one isn't cooperating, you improvise.

One day when my parents decide to move, I won't be able to open the front door and see this beautiful sight. Took that in a lot this trip, just in case. 

Speaking of beautiful sights. My in-law's backyard is one of my favorites. Many hours were spent outside staring out at the beautiful mountains. It became a running joke with my brothers, I would send it to them everyday I was there. 

pickleball tourny

movie's with mom

cruises in the convertible 

Ohp, there is my precious view again

HS reunion for a second

Last but not least: when you make the grandma pierce the ears of your baby and she has the most traumatic experience...

AND THEN a week later you think one earring is higher than the other so you demand the grandma to do it again... 

YOU get your ear pierced for a second just so you know what you're putting your baby through #hilarious

#syncanddrive

I should be blogging about the last month: Utah, Mark's farewell, temple trip, the fact that we don't have any large garbage bags in the house right now (that actually is a funny story), the new nephew, my photography class...

But I simply don't want to right now. Too overwhelming.

I will say though how sad I was flying home--although I had a handsome man greet me at the airport with taco bell which softened the blow immensely--I won't deny that I did miss that gentleman extremely, along with the sand between my toes and the other half of my closet that wouldn't fit in my suitcase. But welcoming those things back meant saying goodbye to my beautiful-ginormous mountains, the hoodie I enjoyed (probably more than I should have) putting on during cool nights, pork barbacoa burrito and of course my beautiful family!


However I do always come home refreshed, ready to hit the ground running in my "normal" routine and put the house back together from my husband's bachelor party while I was gone (that's only a semi-joke. no large garbage bags left in my house remember??). I was super grateful that SJ did make it out for Mark's farewell and got to spend a few days with us. Even though we were apart he still kept me laughing. If you follow him on instagram, then you know he does these crazy #syncanddrive 15 second videos lipsyncing in his car. This one has to be an all time favorite:

ANNNYWAY, onto the next adventure of the summer: Girls Camp! Yep, girls camp in hot and humid Florida? Good one. You know those times where you are just so hammered and disgusting and there is nothing left to go wrong so you are just peeing your pants laughing with everyone around you? I think that is just a small preview of what it is going to be like. How do I know this? Because that is basically what we have experienced planning this charade! But oh, I am pumped! This is my element.

|in one's element. Adj. In a situation which is entirely suitable, familiar, or enjoyable.| 

Maybe I'm speaking too soon. I will let you know if it was in-fact my element when I return on Saturday (ON SATURDAY! IT'S A WHOLE WEEK? IS THAT NUTS TO ANYBODY ELSE? I guess I am used to a good old three day girls camp recharge...). 

Everything put a side, girls camp has been some of the fondest memories of my youth and as a leader. It is where I have come to appreciate Heavenly Father's creations, and where I have gained a testimony of the scriptures and my divine worth. I am excited to get a little glimpse into that again.

Photo Dump.

It is about that time for a photo dump blog post! 

Here are some of the things that have been happening lately:

My friend Jenny & I had way too much fun throwing our lovely Lindsey Turnbough a surprise baby shower one night for YW's. She's never been legit-ly surprised before so we felt prettty good about it!

One of the highlights was a contest to see who could chug apple juice from a bottle the fastest. 

I love, love serving the youth but one of the major pluses is getting to know these fine ladies and growing together as a presidency as we serve. They are too much fun. 

Shaun and I drove to Captiva the other week for a sunset while scarfing our faces with Orange Crunch cake from The Bubble Room. If you haven't been, GO! If you have been, GO AGAIN! So delicious and just perfect to share.

Now back to my hilariously fun calling. I am 2 parts first counselor--1 part personal progress leader. So that means I get the pleasure of getting mad at my favorite little girls when they don't do their personal progress, and get humiliated when they do! Last October I challenged the girls to do a certain number of personal progress and if they made their goal, they got to throw a pie in my face, the YW president's face, and our lovely bishopric's face {my bishopric ROCK!} So many girls were so close! But three girls succeeded my expectations and got to throughly enjoy throwing those pies.

YOU SEE THAT WHIP CREAM IN THE HAIR?! The hair was not the agreement. Revenge was taken later...

Performed a lip-sync at the ward talent show. Nailed it.

One of mine and Shaun's favorite things is being friends with our friends' kids. Sometimes we pick them up just to hang out with them instead of their parents. Which results in getting invited to their cute little birthday parties.  

I think I have taken a picture exactly like this with each one of my friend's littles. I always say "Quick, raise your hands up in the air!" and I usually get either of these 3 responses: 1) Why?  2) We're not on a ride  3) Weeeeee!  (Caro I think their's was #3 if I remember right haha)

SJ has FINALLY found an improv group that is clean enough/not super goofy punny. It was so good to see him up on stage again. Believe it or not, it's where he is the most comfortable (which I will never understand). He even teaches a youth class at the theatre they perform at which has been fun for him. I made him teach the youth of our ward a few weeks back and it was HILARIOUS. I wish I would have taken video.

   

Speaking of SJ, he is one of my biggest cheerleaders in my life! It seems like ever since our initial move to Georgia, I haven't been super on top of my game when it comes to self confidence. Mostly in my abilities to take big projects on whether it be performing musically, starting a small photog biz etc. I have seen it most recently with photography. Most people are lucky and can practice all day everyday on their cute kids. But me? I get a cute husband to practice on. If the roles were reversed I would be tired of it by week 2...heck maybe even day 2! But not Shaun! This was when I asked him to lay down on a pillow by some natural light in preparation for a newborn shoot. Only SJ would lay down, wave his arms around and whimper like a baby ;) 

And to close, one last SJ thing. Last year we became super close with one of the sister missionaries that was serving in our ward. She has since completed her mission and is back to real life (yay!). While being in our home so often, she got to see a lot of Shaun's comedian side including his different characters that he would do. Her favorite, and I think everybody's favorite, is LaShaundra. She's based off a crazy lady that he met years ago at a run down hotel in Las Vegas. Well, it was that sister missionaries birthday the other day so LaShaundra came and celebrated with us...

Pretty Woman

One of my favorite ladies is moving away to her next adventure in NEW YORK CITY (sad face, cry, face, anger face and everything in between) so we drowned our sorrows the only way we knew how:

                                 

                                                    A WeeKeND GetaWaY!

When we moved here a year and a half ago ||whaaat|| these three {+ 1 that couldn't come} would invite me to come hang out with them after their cute preschool that they put on for their kids. Since then these four have become some of my favorite ladies! I'm so grateful for their love and friendship when I need it most... and they keep me laughing--which is always a plus!

When you are all in the same book club, this scene is bound to happen on vacation!

Marco Island treated us so well! I am so disappointed in the lack of picture taking that I did on this trip (I know, are you all shocked?) BUT I made up for it in video footage. Time to plan the next getaway... in NY!

Watch on Vimeo website for HD

Houston

First, everyone who is near a Publix please go RUN and get yourself one of their $5 tulip bouquets. They seriously have brought so much light into our life during this dark and dreary finals week and end of the first quarter for SJ's job. 

Speaking of finals, Shaun was laughing at me the other night because I was camped out in the hallway for hours studying with a bag of potato chips. For being the germ-freak that I am, surprisingly the hallway rug was the most comfortable place to study that day.

But soon I will be completely done with school and will be headed to Utah for my favorite little brother's high school graduation AND mission farewell a week or so later! Yep that's right, I had no idea his papers were even in. I have been hounding him for a year now and was told he finally decided on doing a semester at BYU-I first. Last week Shaun was on FaceTime with him and came in saying he had something to tell me. AND WAH-LAH! He was opening his mission call. Everyone knew, including my husband! My family loves to surprise me for some reason. It's fun...kind of.

Mark Andrew is headed to Houston, TX on June 3rd! Which is pretty hilarious because my older brother and his wife live there. Why couldn't it be the Ft Lauderdale mission?! :) 

So proud of my brother. He has been a spiritual giant in my life.

And speaking of high school graduation, 

I decided to go rummaging in the archives and find some grad pics. 

Class of '08 and '02 

Yep we've done the math and we've heard it all:

"When Shaun graduated high school he had his eye on the 12 year olds.."

"Oh this song brings me back to my junior high days"

"Hmm, don't know if I would have listened to this at age 8"

It makes life fun!