Families ARE Forever

Pulling off a surprise party to celebrate 50 years of being an Eternal family takes a lot of planning, secrets, and cooperation. I got all three.  It took exactly a year to plan the celebration of Grandma and Grandpa and it was worth every minute.

The initial planning started with getting family pictures.  Have you ever tried to get 60 people together at the same time?  It was a task I was willing to take on but I knew it would take advance scheduling if I wanted to be a success.  I started notifying everyone in April about pictures in August.  That way no one could use the excuse, "I didn't know about it and I have something else planned."  Oh NO! That would NOT fly.  I guess everyone knew it because we had everyone but 3 people there.  One had a VERY valid excuse of being out of the country on a mission.  I could accept that.

To keep the peace we brought water, fruit, cheeses, crackers, and cookies.  If you want good pictures then you've got to keep the masses happy, especially when they're melting. 

The next steps were getting a caterer, decorations, invitations, framed pictures, a replica cake, and entertainment.

The last step was keeping it all a secret until April 2011.  That was probably the hardest step of all but everyone did a great job.  There were a few close calls but Grandma and Grandpa never caught on.

The events for the day were as follows: surprise Temple sealing session in the early afternoon and then the surprise dinner that evening.  Grandma and Grandpa thought they were to have a day filled with my sister but they were in for a surprise.

The Temple was...exactly what it needed to be and the cornerstone to the evening.

The dinner was a hit and everything that I could have hoped.  Phil's replica cake was beautiful.  My sister's movies were amazing, entertaining, and the show stealer.  The family involvement was astounding and that's what made the night so amazing.

We reenacted family reunions and if awards were to be issued for the best portrayal of a reunion then the reenactment of Lake Powell would have won.  I was laughing so hard that I was crying.

Speaking of crying.  My favorite line of the night was, "I don't want to be better than them, I want to be JUST LIKE them."  You can't get better than Grandma and Grandpa.  They are wonderful examples and I pray that I can be just like them, too.

I'd do it all over again for them but I couldn't have done it without my family.  Families are Forever and I'm so Thankful for that Blessing in my life.