What a Weekend

Wow! If you don't know, I have totally awesome in-laws. I can't even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have married into such a wonderful, caring, loving group of people I now call family. Brenda and Gene have 5 wonderful children. They have all welcomed me with open arms and an open heart. Jon is the oldest (married to Kelli and they together have Nic and Emma). David is the second child (married to Emily and together they have Abby and Nathan). Then, the first born girl, Jan (who is totally awesome!). Sonja is the fourth (married to Mike and together they have Austin, Ashley and newborn Matthew, who is just precious). Then there is my husband, Andrew (only Drew to me and AF friends...) who is the baby. These 5 amazing kids and their families made a dream come true this weekend. When Brenda and Gene first married, Gene was in the Air Force. They were stationed in England for 2 years. Brenda went over to be with Gene when she was 7 months pregnant and Jon was born overseas. It has been a dream of theirs to one day return to visit the place where they first started out. This weekend, the family surprised them with a trip to England!

Everyone had such an awesome time. Jon cooked up some deer that he "killed" and some fish that Drew caught while we were down in Corpus. Everyone came over for a Saturday afternoon of family fun. We presented them with a slide show of pictures from when they first met and through all of the kids growing up. Jan spent hours converting over 2000 slides to put on a disc. Brenda and Gene thought the slides were their big surprise...but little did they know. It was so much fun reminiscing through old family photos. It really gave me a chance to see all of the memories that have been made in this wonderful family. Here are a few more pictures from this past weekend. It sure was hard to leave and come back to reality!

Starting off right...

So, this is my first blog!! I guess I should just make this first one to catch up the past 2 years...I know it's a lot but I have to start somewhere. Drew and I met January 16, 2009.

We were kind of set up by my sister and her boyfriend (now husband). A group of us were going to Atlanta for the weekend for a concert and Drew and I were the only ones who had to work until 5pm on Friday. I picked him up after work and we headed for the ATL. We hit it off right when we got in the car. We talked and got to know each other for the 3 hour car ride. We went out with our friends and I told him I'd be back in Valdosta Sunday and if he wanted to give me a call to ever hang out. Well, he called the next day! He asked if I wanted to go out for dinner Sunday when I got back to town. We went to dinner and watched a movie. He called me everyday that week. I think it was the third day he called and said "I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to monopolize all of your time but I really enjoy hanging out with you." Of course I didn't mind. He even bought me a motorcycle helmet that first week (pink Hawaiian flowers!!).

 About a month after we started dating he found out he received a pilot training spot which meant he would be moving that August. We decided that we would spend as much time together as we could before he left so we could really get to know each other and if our relationship was worth being long distance. I tried to go see him at least once a month. I flew to Houston that Christmas and we really had a great time.

 We were at the mall and he asked if there were any stores I specifically wanted to check out while we were there. I said not really. The next thing that came out of his mouth floored me. I didn't even know what to say. He asked if I wanted to check out any jewelry stores. I asked "what for?" And from then on for the rest of the trip we were ring shopping. When I left Houston, I was expecting to get engaged later in the year (2010). When I was literally getting off the interstate back in Valdosta, Drew called and said "I want to get married now." I was shocked. We talked for about 2 hours and decided that the sooner the better. We knew that he would be moving again in the spring even farther than he already was. So, we got engaged on our one year anniversary in Birmingham and got married in March!

 I moved to Columbus, MS. Then in May we moved to Corpus Christi, TX. We enjoyed summer of being close do Drew's family who came to visit often. I mean, who doesn't love living at the beach!

 Drew graduated and pinned his wings in October 2010.

 In December we moved to Little Rock, AR. We are really enjoying the change of scenery from Corpus. There are lots of outdoors-ey things to do here. We are looking forward to spring!!