Zenna's Wedding

Bret's sister, Zenna, got married yesterday to Kurt Heward. It was a small and beautiful ceremony held in the Wardle's backyard, followed by a nice reception. We are so happy for them and pray for the best for their marriage. 

Kurt & Zenna Heward
Married by Bishop Gerrard

Cute baby Audrey! (Jake and Amy's youngest)

Their decor was very "shabby sheek" - they had old windows and doors set up around the yard and it turned out to be really cool looking!

Everybody pitched in and made a jar for the tables that either held a candle or flowers.

Jake, Bret, Darla & Alan

Nate (Jake and Amy's) putting candles in the centerpieces.

 And the most entertaining part of the night was undoubtedly the post-reception karyoke party hosted by Jeremy! We were all out there singing so it didn't really matter whether or not you had a microphone. It was so much fun. The Wardles are goofy and I LOVE being a part of this fun family. I am so lucky!

Jeremy, the DJ and best singer-impersonator (he has a really good voice - who knew?!)

the Woodlands

Third stop: the Woodlands, TX.
Location: 1 hour north of Houston.
Purpose: Steven and Stephanie's wedding.

Josh and Bret
(We found out that some of the classmates like to call Josh 'Justin Beiber' because of his sweet hair-do.)

Bret was trying to get a picture that showed my face and the bride's chair behind me which reads, "Mrs. Always Right." I guess he thinks I'm right all the time. Sweet!

Stephen, the groom!

Stephanie and her father.

Brooklyn and Maddie
(both in Bret's class; Maddie has become a good friend of mine)

Boyfriend and Jenna

Girlfriend and Grant

Beautiful setting! That's Adeeb in the middle.

(top) Bret, Brandt, Adeeb, Luis, Chris (bottom) Grant, Josh
By the time I realized how dark the picture was it was too late to take it with a flash.
We still have a lot left to learn about our camera! 

Jenna, Me, Brooklyn, Maddie, Jenna

and Cesse, the doctor!

Stephanie is one of Bret's classmates and her now husband, Steven, is good buddies with all of them as well, so we were excited to be able to make it out to the Houston area to support them on their big day. This was by far the fanciest, most expensive wedding I've ever seen. They were married in a beautiful church and the ceremony was a lot like what you'd expect... think of the chick-flicks you've seen with the flower girls and the preacher. Then everyone drove a few miles over to the Marriott hotel's ballroom which was very fancy. There was "cocktail hour" in the lobby area (I can not imagine how expensive the alcohol alone was for this wedding!!!) Then we went in for dinner and dancing and cutting the cake and all of that. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a lot of fun dancing and chatting with friends. It was certainly different from most of the weddings we've attended... especially as the night wore on and the alcohol kicked in. We started seeing some new and interesting personalities come out and we knew when it was time to leave. But we do feel lucky that his classmates are so accepting of us and don't tease us (too much) about our different lifestyle choices. We love them and are glad we could celebrate with them before we all went our separate ways for summer internships.

Houston

Our second stop on our journey home...

Where: Houston, TX.
Location: 1 hour northwest of Galveston.
Reason: Explore the city, kill time before the wedding tomorrow.

NASA Museum - Johnson Space Center Houston

Model of the living quarters at the Space Station

Astronaut Bret (I didn't want to put it on my head after watching 20 sweaty kids stick it on)

Model of a Space Ship control deck

"One small step for man..."

This wall required too much thinking to understand, but it looked cool.

Model of astronauts living in space.

Astronaut Training Facility at the actual space center nearby.

Rocket Park

Rocket Park, in front of a real, huge rocket

Museums, Etc.

Can you spot the Longhorns?

Houston Museum of Natural Science 

Herman Park

View of downtown Houston from the car

On Friday we went to the NASA Museum and spent a long time there. It was a pretty cool museum with a lot to do and see. Then we checked into our hotel in the Museum/Medical district of Houston and went to get pizza at a local pizzeria called "Luigi's". It was delicious! Then we took the leftovers with us to Herman Park (where it took almost an hour to park) for an outdoor free concert that ended up being totally awesome and totally crowded. It was a Motown concert and we definitely in the minority as far as race goes. I think all the African American ladies standing up in the middle of a song and dancing or waving their arms took him back to his mission days in Georgia. The concert was held in a big outdoor amphitheater and people took blankets and chairs to sit on the hill behind the actual seating.  It was packed, but somehow we found an extra seat in the actual amphitheater so we had a great view.

On Saturday we spend the morning seeing more museums. We spent a couple hours at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and then walked over to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Both were pretty cool. Then we voted that it was definitely time for food and Chipotle sounded like the perfect choice. It was... mmm! Then we drove an hour north to the Woodlands area for Steven and Stephanie's wedding (the entire reason for going 6 hours away from Utah to spend the weekend in Houston). 

(to be continued...)

Galveston

After cleaning and packing up our entire apartment, we launched our 5-day adventure home to Utah.

First stop: Galveston Island, TX.
Location: 6.5 hours in the wrong direction, Easternmost part of TX.
Purpose: chillax

Unfortunately it was super windy and the water was dirty and dangerous. We didn't get in... not even our feet (the beach was covered - literally covered, everywhere - with algae). But it was still fun to see Galveston and relax after a long drive and lots of packing.

"P.S. If this is Austin..."

The first weekend in May, Bret and I took our first ever trip to Austin, TX. It is the state's capitol and our new favorite place in this gigantic state. 

West Texas (where we live) is super duper dry and flat and blah. There just aren't a lot of trees (besides mesquite trees, which are... interesting) or greenery or mountains or really anything. East Texas is very humid and foresty. Austin is in the middle, in the heart of hill country, with lots of green but not much humidity. Maybe we just had a charmed weekend, but I fell in love with this city. It is about the size of Salt Lake... maybe a bit bigger, but it sort-ot spreads itself out into suburbs and is metropolitan but not intimidating. 

I don't want to give you a travel-log, but here are some of our favorite pics to highlight our short vacation.

Bob Bullock Museum of Texas History
(A really cool museum with that helped me understand why Texans are so darn cocky!)

University of Texas at Austin
Hook 'em Horns!

We spent a couple hours wandering around the beautiful campus.
This building was gorgeous, but the picture doesn't do it justice at all.

My favorite part of UT Campus... the orange parking meters.

Bret's favorite part of campus?
Duh... the stadium!

I don't know why they decided to put a charging horse on their campus,
but I thought it was pretty cool.
(I also recognize that I am a total geek for making Bret take this picture.)

The State Capitol of Texas
(this is the back side)

City skyline from the steps of the capitol building.

Bret and his role model George W. Bush.
Bret wants to be just like him when he grows up :)

My new favorite Mexican Restaurant every anywhere.
Our waiter was the nicest ever and the food was AWESOME!!!

View from Zilcher Park walk/bike trail
(How beautiful is that skyline?)

We saw all these kayaks and canoes out on the Ladybird Lake
and decided to rent a boat the next morning.
Best part of our trip! 

Perfect night. Perfect city.
Perfectly happy together.

View from Mt. Bonnell
(this is looking away from the city but you can see the skyline from the other side)

Picture taken at the Botanical Gardens.
I love this handsome man.

Japanese pond at the Botanical Gardens.

Almost 3 years married and still think we are the happiest,
luckiest couple in the world.  

 We spent Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning in Austin. We loved just exploring and walking around. Hands down our favorite activity (no pictures, sorry) was kayaking on Ladybird "Lake" which is really more like a big river that runs right around the metropolitan area of the city. We sat in the sunshine (getting totally sunburnt) for two hours enjoying our surroundings... big buildings, cars, people, tall trees, art festivals in parks, people on runs and bike rides... this place has an incredible blend of urban and nature. There is so much LIFE with all the people and music and art, and yet you feel surrounded by beauty and the outdoors. I hope we get to spend a lot more time in Austin!

We topped off our trip by driving a couple hours to San Antonio to see the Livesy family. We hung out at their house, went to dinner at an incredibly beautiful restaurant, played with the kids, and enjoyed going to church with them. We are lucky to have such great friends who are so generous to us!