HAPPY 40TH!

Most of you know that Jeff, the boys, and I are in Breckenridge, CO right now. We drove up to CO for two reasons. The first, to celebrate Jeff's parents 40th wedding anniversary. The second, to have our first family vacation since Christmas...we were in CO then too.
The actual anniversary day was August 10th. However, we could not all make it to CO until the end of August. Dave always said that he wanted to take all of us to CA to celebrate their 40th. Since that was not going to work with three little babies we all decided to go to CO. The plan was to just go to dinner for their 40th. What they did not know is that we actually planned a SURPRISE party that a number of their family and friends attended.
Kristen, Les, Jeff, and I worked very hard for the past 9 months to make this surprise work. Guess what? We pulled it off! They were completely surprised and had a wonderful day. I say day because surprises started Saturday morning and did not end until the party ended that night. Joshua delivered the invitation to Grampie and Mimi Saturday morning. They began asking questions then...Joshua did not release any information he knew! Then Lynda's sister, Pam from CA, surprised them...it was the best! Pam had to leave early Sunday, so we wanted her to get as much visiting time in as possible.
People came from all over, CA, FL, KS, TX, and CO. Dave never stopped asking questions about who all was going to be there? He pretty much guessed everyone, but that did not make the surprise of seeing everyone less enjoyable.
We catered chicken and beef fajitas, black beans, and rice. We had so much food! Everyone enjoyed the food, but we received even more compliments about the cake, see picture below. Everything was very tastey!
We found their wedding album and had two pictures framed, one of them after their ceremony and the other of them next to their wedding cake. Then we had pictures copied of them when they were younger spread throughout. Jeff, Traci, and I were very sneaky with all of this...thank goodness they have been out of town a lot this year!
We are very pleased at how everything turned out. Not sure if I want to do this again anytime soon...I planned 2 surprise parties this year and it was very exhausting. However, you get this high knowing how much the recipients of the party appreciate the hard work.


Kristen had a replica of their wedding cake made (smaller scale)...did you know they do not put swans on wedding cakes anymore? We had these made out of icing. The floral centerpiece was made by a friend.

First taste of the cake...HAPPY TIMES!

Dave and Lynda, thank you for giving us such a perfect example of marriage. We look forward to seeing many more years of your marriage and growing in our own. We love you!