June

June is over.

The first month of summer came and it went more quickly than I was prepared for...
in case you noticed the lack of blog posts during the sixth month of the year.

June 2014 was packed to the brim full for the McQuinn family.

There was house hunting and buying,
a wedding, a baptism,
travel, family, sun and a whole lot of love.

The House

Since we discovered we would be putting our roots down in the Houston area, we've been researching  areas, school districts and homes. After the sale of our house in TN, our search got a little more serious. After weeks of research, we had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to be and what we were looking for.
After a weekend of hunting, we found our home in Friendswood, Texas. It is under construction and we are looking at a finish date sometime in August/September.
We are so excited to be 'settling in' for good and are busy thinking about furniture, decor, and a neighborhood.


Iowa: A Wedding & A Baptism
We traveled to Iowa to attend my dear sweet friend Heidi's wedding in Des Moines. Heidi has been a friend since high school and was my roommate freshman year of college, so she will always have a special place in my heart. Heidi was a stunning bride and I was honored to be a part of her and Jason's special day...
which was absolutely gorgeous and oh so much fun!







Lauren made a brief appearance at the reception.
My parents attended the wedding and took Lauren back to the hotel so we could properly celebrate Heidi & Jason.

While we were in Iowa, Lauren got to spend some quality time with lots of friends and family.
We took the day to road trip to Missouri to visit Matt's grandmothers and properly introduce them to Lauren.




Auntie Minnie & Auntie Kate had an afternoon play date with Lauren.



Lauren also got to spend lots of time with Grandma & Grandpa McQuinn and her cousins.




So, while we had the majority of our family in one place, we decided it would be a great opportunity to have Lauren baptized.
It was a bit stressful to imagine attending the baptism of our daughter
the morning after a really good wedding reception...
but we're parents now.
This is our life.

Yes, the bonnet was a deciding factor on the baptismal gown.




My brother, Tyler, and sister, Alysa, are Lauren's godparents.
Tyler is in Kansas City now and made the trip over for the baptism. Since Alysa's a little bit farther away and it was a busy weekend, we decided her time and plane ticket would be better spent on a trip to Texas.

From Iowa, Matt made his way back to Texas and Lauren and I packed our bags and began our summer road trip...

Minnesota
We made our way up to New Ulm, Minnesota where we spent some time with Grandpa & Grandma McGuire, cousins Lilly & James and their family, and Great Uncle Jerry & Aunt Joanie.
Lauren loved all the attention and especially enjoyed working her new walking 'along the furniture' skills at the McGuire house. My grandparents refinish antiques and we took notice that the furniture seems lower to the ground...
perfect for our little miss.




One of my favorite moments,
besides seeing my grandparents love on Lauren
and seeing that Great Uncle Gerry still does the Donald Duck voice,
was taking Lauren to Herman The German park,
 a park that we played at each time we visited Grandpa & Grandma's.


South Dakota
From Minnesota we made our way to South Dakota {via detours due to road closures from rain} to visit Aunt Betty and Grandpa Clet and his new bride, Val.
My grandpa married a lovely woman who makes him oh so happy in April. While we have met, via FaceTime, this was my first opportunity to meet her in person. She was so kind and makes my grandfather smile, which was wonderful to see.
We spent time with them in their new home and had a lovely time.




We had a great visit with Aunt Betty, who always makes Lauren smile and also saw Aunt Tami and her family, who gave Lauren lots of attention.
Our time in South Dakota ended with a lovely dinner with Great Aunt Kay, Great Aunt Shirley, and Grandpa and Val.

Kansas | Illinois | Tennessee
From South Dakota we made our way to Kansas City, to meet back up with my dad and spend some time with Uncle Tyler.
Again we had to make a detour to avoid flooded areas, but arrived in Kansas City before traffic and just in time for dinner.
We spent some time at Tyler's, where he introduced Lauren to his vinyl collection and even played her a few records inspired by her.

The next day we set out for Tennessee with a scheduled stop to visit Great Grandma Sara and Great Aunt Maryann in Illinois.
We discussed how far we would go and decided we would let Lauren dictate our day,
but I think secretly we were all hoping we could make it the whole way after packing up the car that morning with luggage for three adults and baby gear.
We arrived in Illinois at the perfect time. Lauren was ready to get out and socialize. She went straight to Grandma Sara and Maryann and loved playing with Maryann's two sweet pups.



I was so happy to have had the opportunity to visit with Grandma Sara.
She spends most of the year in Florida now, so this worked perfectly.
I've been wanting to introduce Lauren to her Great Great Grandma for sometime now, so this picture is pretty special to me.
After visiting with Grandma Sara, Lauren has officially met all of her grandparents, which makes Matt and I very happy.
The stop at Grandma's was just what Lauren needed. She had a bottle fell asleep and we made it all the way to Knoxville.

I can't say enough about how wonderfully Lauren traveled throughout the week.
She really is such a good little traveler.

Tennessee
We spent the next week in Tennessee, enjoying time with Grandpa & Grandma, visits from Auntie Aly,  shopping, stopping in our favorite Knoxville restaurants and ended the week with Lauren's first trip to the Pour House.










Our June was packed.
full.
and it went a bit too fast.

but looking back on it, I like the way we started our summer.
We didn't ease into the lazy days of summer...
We filled our June days with travel, sun, and lots of love

and then came home to spend the rest of the summer relaxing and trying to beat this Texas heat.

We may have ourselves a summer tradition.