50 Years!

 

This year my parents are celebrating 50 years of marriage! 

 

 

They met when my mom was 14 and my dad was 17.  When they married, my parents were just 18 and 21!  They have endured their share of trials and joys throughout the years, but their love and devotion for each other has always been strong.

Although their actual anniversary is in September, we had a grand celebration this past Saturday. 

The day couldn’t have been more wonderful.

There was a huge tent, festooned with balloons and bunting, a projection screen for video footage taken on the day of their wedding, and scores of pictures taken throughout the past 50 years.

 

            

 

There were also 5 photo boards with pictures taken representing each decade of their marriage.  For example the first 10 years were the “baby years” when 5 out of 6 of us were born.  That was followed by the school age years.  Then the next decade was when we began going off to college.  The 4th decade saw us all getting married.  We had 4 weddings in 2 years!  And of course the last decade has included the births of many of our children;  the grandchildren!

 

You can see a glimpse of the boards behind Mom and Olivia.

 

 

We all feel incredibly blessed to belong to each other.  And our kids share the same gratitude and love for their cousins.  With 18 girl cousins, ages  3-17, and 11 boy cousins, ages 2-17, there are no shortage of playmates!  (and 1 more surprise baby coming for my sister in January!)

They love to spend time with each other, and our once a month birthday celebrations at Grandma and Grandpa’s house are a time of fun for everyone.

Here are just a few of the many pictures of the cousins!

 

      

 

And a peek at several of them as they sat down to prepare for the “program” on Saturday.

 

 

We sisters spent a good deal of time hammering out the details for the program on our return trip from Virginia a couple of weeks ago.  There have been many, many group emails flying around between us and our parents’ good friends, Sean and Dayla, as we tried to get everything figured out.  We printed out the details and set them on the tables for the guests, so they would know what was coming!

 

 

Our family has always loved music and singing together.  Dad and Mom wanted us to sing a few of our old songs for them and their guests.  Here are my sisters and I singing, “Perhaps Love”.  I wish I had a recording for you, so you could listen to it!  But just use your imagination. 

We stood in order of age… I am on the right, then Colleen, Minda, Jennifer, and Heather.  Our brother Chuck is the oldest, but wasn’t able to be with us during that part of the day.  He and his boys came a little while later and joined the fun.

 

 

Our parents also wanted their grandchildren to sing a couple of the songs we sang when we were kids.  Here is a shot of the kids singing “I Am a Promise”, and “Plenty of Room in the Family”. 

 

They did a great job!  We were really proud of them.

 

There was also one really special surprise that day!  Sean arranged for my mom’s mother to be there!  Just the fact that my grandma is still with us, at age 92!, is a miracle.  Here is a shot of Mom when she saw Grandma wheeled into the tent!  I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.  Grandma doesn’t talk much, but the smiles she gave us, showed us she was glad to be there.

 

And then there was the cake!  My sister Heather made this gorgeous cake and over 250 cupcakes!

 

 

 

They were beautiful and delicious!

 

Here are Mom and Dad cutting the cake!  

 

It was a day we all will never forget!

Filled with laughter and tears, music and Scripture, friends and family!

 

Talk about a fabulous “before” and “after!”

 

 

In fact, I think it might be more appropriate to say it is a  “Happily Ever After!”

 

We Love you, Mom and Dad!