06 Oct
From Those Friends to That Couple: That Boy Meets The Parents
Several wonderful months passed with the two of us exploring our new relationship and trying to settle into our new roles as boyfriend and girlfriend. He got used to the idea that we were going to be holding hands and kissing *gasp* in public sometimes, and I got used to the idea that we didn’t have to be together every waking moment.
Time passed entirely too quickly and soon it was time for me to move home for summer term (I had a great summer job waitressing at a luxury resort near my house) and time for him to move down to Dallas to begin working for “Uncle B” (as a certain friend of mine likes to say). Somehow I convinced That Boyfriend to make the 10 hour drive up to Washington with me and help me move, and also so he could meet my family, as they had been dying to meet him for months now.
Because my family lives in such close proximity to each other he didn’t just meet my parents. He met my mom’s parents, my mom’s grandma, my dad’s parents, my aunt and uncle and their 6 kids, an aunt and uncle and their 5 kids, two sets of aunts and uncles from Seattle, as well as various couples close to my parents who were dying to know who Jenna was dating (TH was actually my first steady boyfriend since high school several years earlier so this was a big deal).
He made such a good impression that I think my family started liking him better than they liked me. 
We spent a day or two showing him around the family farm. We didn’t actually drive this tractor but I gave him a taste of a farmer’s life by making him get inside. I think he decided he liked his cushy desk job better than the noisy tractor environment.
We also had a race to see who could get the irrigation tubes started the fastest…
he won. By alot. And I felt ashamed of my skills as a farmer’s daughter.
By far That Boyfriend’s favorite stop during this trip was the organic pea field. He could have stayed out in that field for days hunting for pea pods and picking out the peas. I was a bit overcome by how cute he was and hoped we would get married.
After a few days he went home and left me with a family gushing about how wonderful he was. Of course they didn’t need to tell me, I already knew that. If only we were going to be seeing each other more than once a month for the next 10 months…
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
I love how you guys have such great pictures from when you were dating. I like this segment!
1This is such a great series to do- thank you for sharing it with us!
2That’s way to cute of a story. It’s reminding me that I want to make photo albums of each year we spend together.
3My family did not meet my husband until after we were married, for the big family ceremony wedding…
Jenna I love that last picture! It totally warmed my heart. You guys are so fun and so cute! :))))))))))
4A John Deere family eh? Will your little one be playing with John Deere tractors as well?
Its adorable my BF’s family is John Deere as well so when I ask her son what his favorite tractors are he look at me all serious, smiles huge and says “Green!”
5This is adorable! Keep the story coming!
6Seriously Jenna, that last picture?!? Beyond adorable. How come we haven’t seen it before?
7Love the photos - who took them?! I wish I could convince someone to follow me around with a camera!
8I love the last two pictures… the look on your face in the second-to-last is so cute, and then I love that he seems to be throwing peas into your mouth in the last! How cute!
I think I can empathize/sympathize with TH… when I met Chris’ parents, I met one sister, both his grandmas, a good hand full of his aunts & uncles (out of a total of 17 couples) and about 10-15 cousins. And then his PARENTS brought up marriage. It was stressful. But fun.
9Super cute! And it’s awesome that you have so many photographers in your family; you have great documentation of so many life events!
10Love it! You are such an incredible blogger, photographer and creative artist. Hope you are feeling well!!
11I love hearing about the adventure. I didn’t start following your blog until right after Christmas, so I didn’t get to hear any of this before.
PS. I can say that I can relate to the “my family likes him better than me” statement. I’m pretty sure it was the case for me as well.
12proof that your mom is an accomplished photographer. My dating pics are few, far between and pretty awful self-taken snapshots!
13That last picture is possibly the cutest picture EVER!!
14The two of you are absolutely adorable. It’s no wonder you’re so happy now.
15I am really enjoying this set of posts! So fun and such a great way for the people who met your on WB….to get to go back and see how it all started. Love it!
16Love the last picture.
17These pictures are adorable! I love hearing about how couples meet and the whole ‘meeting’ the family.
And that last picture with the pea, wonderful!
18That’s too cute. It’s fun to remind ourselves of when the relationship was new! And you have great pictures to capture those moments.
19