The 50th Anniversary Celebration

The anniversary celebration couldn’t have been any better. We started off the morning with breakfast – a normal way to start any day, would you not agree? J About noon we sent my parents off with all of the grandchildren except for the two smallest. They were to be gone until 4:00 p.m. At that point they could come back, rest and then get dressed for supper which was supposed to be at 5:00.

First they took the grandchildren to a rock shop down the road. (There’s several very interesting rock shops in Estes Park.) They ended up at Lake Estes where they rented a car/bike that two people can pedal. Zachary pedaled mom and dad around the lake – 2 ½ miles and was quite tired by the time he finished. Dad couldn’t pedal much because of his knee, so Zachary worked hard! They even had to get out and push when they would come to an incline. The kids could have taken turns pedaling grandpa and grandma around but apparently Zac took off like a mad man when they arrived and they had a hard time catching up with him. I didn’t doubt the story since it sounds just like him. J

They arrived back at the house at about 4:00 (right on time -Yikes, we need to hurry!) We girls and our husbands had been busy getting supper underway and decorating.

By the time we started grilling the steaks the weather had stopped cooperating at that point, (yet again! The weather is very temperamental in Estes Park we found out.) so my brother-in-law was outside grilling steaks in the rain wearing his rain slicker. He wasn’t used to cooking on a gas grill (He goes the old-fashioned, tasty way of using sticks and wood.) so at times it looked like we had a bonfire going. The meat turned out great though with only a few pieces given up as burnt offerings.

The four oldest boys were our waiters and did a great job serving up plates and keeping our glasses refilled.

After the dinner we took pictures of each person with mom and dad for a possible scrap book. Then the program began.

The order of events were:

Song Requested by Dad for Mom

Reading of Letters –  How Dad and Mom Have Affected My Life

We were all in tears reading our letters/or just speaking our memories. I figured we would need the next day just to recover from the drain of all the emotions flowing.  This was one of the highlights of the evening.

Then each family sang a song, poem or something similar related to the celebration. My three sisters, along with our husbands sang “I Love You Truly” because it was the only song sang at mom and dad’s wedding. I won’t say how we sounded – I’ll just leave it to your imagination.

I had asked mom and dad questions about how they met, first date, why they were attracted to each other, etc. We took those answers and made a skit out of them. It turned out so good! In each scene different grandchildren portrayed mom and dad. Every grandchild ended up having some part in the skit. My mom laughed and laughed watching it.

(Mom was an operator at the telephone office.  Dad was making a call one day and got mom.  They talked for a bit and then mom said "I’m not supposed to talk.  I could get in trouble for this."  So dad asked her if he could take her home from church that night and said goodbye.  That’s how their first date came to be.)

Finally, we ended the evening’s presentations with a slide show. I was for sure I would need a box of Kleenex’s because when I was putting it together I cried several times. It was strange, but when I watched it that time, Kleenex in hand, nary a tear dropped. I sat there with a smile on my face the whole time! Go figure!

Mom and dad then cut the cake. My niece had made a delicious strawberry jelly roll. Instead of making a jelly roll though, she made it into a cake. It was very light and moist. My sister did an awesome job of arranging fresh flowers to place on top. It looked so beautiful.

We finally retired about 1a.m. feeling good about the day. It was such fun to plan this whole thing and a great privilege to be able to spend it with mom and dad. God has been good to them giving them 50 precious years together.

Mom had given me a lot of keepsakes she had kept over the years.  So we set up an area where we displayed old pictures and keepsakes.  The day after the anniversary we took this picture of mom and dad wearing their high school sweaters.  Dad has on a varsity sweater he got in 9th grade playing football.  He had an accident playing football that year that left him in bed for 6 months taking 21 pills a day.  Through that accident he came to know the Lord and was healed completely the same night he was saved.  It’s a beautiful story and one we always love to hear.

Mom wearing her wedding tiara.

 Two very special people!

More pictures are posted on my travel blog – Lovin’ to Travel  and descriptions of what we did while we were there.  Of course, I’m still working on getting it completely updated but I’m almost there. 

Copyright 2008 Treasuring the Moments