Parker Family Reunion

June 2008

Centralia, Illinois

We all gathered together this past weekend in Centralia to enjoy fun, family, and friends. With our busy schedules and growing families it was hard to find a time and place that everyone could travel to so we all decided to meet at the most comfortable and fun place of all - Mom and Dad's house.

Shannon and Sarah made the long journey from Oak Harbor, WA as well as Crosby, Lauren, And Crosby II who traveled from Gulfport, MS. Since Crissie is just starting a new semester of school she and Michael had to travel in two cars! The babies are all just four months apart and starting to have fun with one another. Below are some pictures from our weekend.

pictured L to R: front row - Lauren , Crosby, Crosby II, Bennett, Coco, Sarah, and Shannon back row - Taylor, Michael, Crissie, Papa, Jessica, Parker, and Clif

As you can see from the pictures below the deck and the back porch became the place to be (and it also doubled as the playroom).

Playing and having a meal on the back porch.

picnicing on the deck

mmm.. that's good

The adults enjoying the beautiful weather.

Hanging out by the pool (and yes the pacifier is back...a long story for another post)

Playing on Crocdile Island

The children and I traveled up to Centralia the week before the big weekend and enjoyed Coco and Papa and I got to visit with a couple of high school friends. Below is a picture of my best friend Heather's little girl Lilly who turned one in June. Bennett had a good time showing her all of his toys.
Playing with the kitties
Scootin' around on our new scooter
Playing dressup with all of Coco's fun things
Ridin' the Big Wheel
There are too many pictures to post so I will include a slideshow soon.

Two weeks ago, Parker, Bennett and I traveled south to Natchez to visit Coco while she was staying with Grandmother Belle. We had a fun but quick trip. While we were there we went over to Uncle Bill's house to swim. Bennett loves the water and Parker is just starting to swim without floaties. Parker just finished her first two weeks of swim lessons and really enjoyed it. I'm going to enroll her in more lessons throughout the summer. I will post some video of her swimming and jumping off our diving board soon.

Mom has been talking about all the rain and storms they have had lately and she wasn't kidding. There are trees down all over the front and back yard. Also, you won't believe what happened last night....scroll down


While we were sitting on the deck enjoying the evening we started to hear intermitent popping noises. We thought the neighbors were shooting at squirrels. Little did we know what was going to happen next. All of a sudden, the other half of the tree that was damaged in an earlier storm came crashing down so Parker and Coco went to check it out. I wish y'all could have heard what she had to say.

Congratulations to Beth and Brian Barnes on their new baby GIRL! We are so excited to introduce Ruby Joesph Barnes.

I don't have any specifics but I do have a great picture below of our favorite niece.

Back in May we went to Old Waverly golf course with Clif's parents so that he and his dad could play in the annual Member-Guest tournament. We had a great time and the weather was fantastic. Parker and Bennett were a hit among the guests. We failed to get many pictures because we were so busy chasing those busy bees.

Bennett and his YaYa.

Parker's silly dance

I'm not sure where she got her rhythm or moves but I know she won't be winning "so you think you can dance" anytime soon.

Bennett is walking

Bennett is walking....not really but he can move fast behind his walking toys. He will even let go and stand and balance for a few seconds. I'm not sure when he will walk but it won't be long.

Ballerina Parker

I hope y'all enjoy Parker dancing as much as we do!

Below is an old video that I finally got posted of Bennett crawling. He has a cute little crawl because he kicks out one of his legs every so often to use his foot to push forward. Now his favorite thing to do is walk behind his airplane toy. I am posting some new video of him doing that and Parker dancing (these are hilarious!). I hope you enjoy them!

Bennett's crawl

Bennett's crawl

We are home again!

Clif, the children and I all went to Alburquerque to visit my best friend and college roomate - Andrea...and did I mention that they live on a golf course and her husband George invited Clif to play in their Dos Amigos member guest tournament. Andrea and George have two girls, Claudia who will be 5 in June and Emma who is 2. Parker and Bennett had lots of fun playing with them. Below are lots of pictures from our first trip via airplane with Parker and Bennett

Andrea and George have a beautiful house on the Chamisa Hills golf course which has a great view of the Sandia Mountain (I can't believe it but I didn't get a picture of the view). Below is a picture of Andrea and her garden. Their house has all these great courtyards with my favorit being right in the middle of the house. They had a wonderful backyard that the children played and ran around in.

Emma and Bennett clowning around.

Parker, Claudia and Emma playing in the pool in the backyard. The weather was beautiful!

The girls jumping on the trampoline Parker, Claudia and Bennett swing awhile. This was out morning activity everyday.
Movie time! The girls watching a movie enjoying popcorn.
Bennett and Taco (the little Chihuahua) enjoying the outdoors.
My sweet baby boy enjoying being outside.
Parker and Emma playing in the sandbox.
And after all the fun outside and on the golf course you could tell that the traveling had made us a little tired. Below is Clif in the massage chair and Parker and Bennett playing. If you can't tell, we made a make-shift play area with Bennett using the strollers and our carryon luggage. It did the trick and everyone seemed to enjoy it when they walked by.