Day 4: Your parents

I'm very fortunate to have the parents that I have, as I'm fairly confident they are the greatest parents to ever live. As you read from a previous post, I never knew the story of how my parents met. I took this as an opportunity to rectify that!

My dad, Jeffrey Roland Hawkins, was born on July 17, 1951, to the beautiful Mary Lou Larsen in Provo, Utah. He was a little brother to Craig and Mike, and from all the stories I have heard over the years, I gather he was quite the handful ;)

Here is a family picture showing my Grannie, my uncle Craig (far left), my uncle Mike (far right), and my dad (the little guy in the middle trying his hardest to look innocent.) Get a good look, I'm positive this the most innocent he has ever looked, and I'm confident we will not see this face made again anytime soon ;) 

My mom, Patricia Ann Wright, was born on February 12, 1956, to Robert and JoAnn Wright in Carroll, Iowa. She had an older sister named Barbie, and would become a big sister to Rhonda and Ricky.

This is a picture of my Grandma JoAnn holding my mom not too long after she was born.

Cut to the year 1973. My dad, 22 years old, heads to Cheyanne, Wyoming with a few of his buddies to pursue a job opportunity. My mom's family was also living in Cheyanne at the time. Although the exact date cannot be remembered, the theory is that it was sometime after Christmas in 1973. My mom, 17, went to a bar named the Cheyanne Electric Company with one of her friends, Connie, and Connie's boyfriend, Neil. My dad and his buddies also ended up at this same bar, after a hard day's work, to wind down. Apparently the couple that my mom had come with were in some sort of an argument, and they left my mom wondering why exactly she had to be there with them for that. All the while, my dad had his sights set on her from across the room, and was motioning for her to come over to him. Having her mind on other things, it took a while to get her attention. When she noticed him....she went over to him! And the rest, as they say, is history :)

In her senior year of high school, my mom had an advantage that not a lot of other kids her age had. Her drivers license said she was 2 years older than she actually was. When her mom took her to get her drivers license, they asked her when her birthday was. Her mom immediately replied, "1954." That was the year her older sister, Barbie, was born. At the time, the legal drinking age in Wyoming was 18, so according to her drivers license, she was old enough to drink! This actually just got fixed a few months ago. Can you imagine the looks she got when she went to the DMV?! "I'm not this old, I'm actually 2 years younger!" "Sure you are ma'am..."

This is a family picture of my mom and her family on Christmas, I am not sure of the year. From left to right: Rhonda, Grandma, Grandpa, Barbie, Ricky, and my mom.

This is the two of them in my Grannie's backyard. The funny thing is that you can see my neighbors house, right in back of them :)

Pictures from their wedding: December 22, 1978 <3