St.Louis: Part 1

This past weekend I had the immense pleasure of hitting the road for a shopping excursion with my in-laws! My mom-in-law and little sis-in-law both came from the Great Mitten (Michigan), big sis-in-law came from the deep south (Mississippi), and I drove a short 3 hours to continue my life-long trek in the mid-west. 

I thought I would share bits and pieces of the trip over the next week or so. There's just too much to fit into 1 post, (plus I took well over 600 photos). 

To start us off here are some lovely shots of my mom-in-law: Gin. 

Things I love about my mom-in-law: 

1. She is full of grace, wisdom, and love. I have never felt a single moment of awkwardness, disapproval, or questioning of whether or not I belonged with the Visser clan. I have felt nothing but love and joy from the second that I started dating my husband until now. 

2. She is becoming a mother to me. There are never enough stories about how wonderful mom-in-laws can be. I didn't luck out, I found a wonderful man with a wonderful family. Gin is a wonderful mother and I don't think she'll ever turn away another "kid." I want to be like that when my husband and I do decide to have a family of our own. 

3. Gin is funny. I just can't explain how many times she's gotten laughs out of me in the most ridiculous ways. Plus she laughs as often as possible and I cannot express how wonderful that is. 

My favorite memory of Gin thus far has to be riding to ORU in Tulsa to move little sis-in-law into her dorm room at the beginning of August in 2011. In a few short weeks I would be engaged to her son and she would be helping me plan a Michigan wedding. We rode together so that brother and sister could catch up and we shared our stories together. She asked me about what made me who I am and she shared all of the beauty and trials that had made her into the person that she is. I knew already that I wanted to be a Visser, but I can't express how amazing it felt to know someone who cared about me as much as she did when she had only met me 4 or so times. Half of those times Quenten and I hadn't even been dating, we were only friends. That's all it took for her to love me.