Mom & Dad's 30th Anniversary

My Parents celebrated their 30th Anniversary last month by going on a week-long Temple Trip. They traveled up to Rexburg and visited Nikki and went to the Temple there. They went to several temples including one in Montana and one in Canada. We hear that they had a great time.

Here at home we were planning a little surprise! The idea was actually Michaela's and I'm glad that she encouraged us to plan this fun evening.

We planned the party for the Monday after they came back from their trip. Dan called some friends of theirs and asked them to get Mom and Dad out of the house for a while - so they went out to Mom's favorite restaurant - Costa Vida!

While they were gone, we decorated the house a bit. Mom & Dad's reception colors were blue and white, so we tried to stay with that and added some silver because we just needed these big "30" balloons!

We also decorated with their wedding album and Mom's Railroad memorabilia that she has around the house to go along with their gift that we all went in together and gave them - a ride on the Thuder Mountain Line! Michaela also had the idea of give them a framed & matted picture with our signatures and congratulations (Bob put the collage together with Mom & Dad's wedding pic, and then a pic of each kid and their family.)

We also got Mom's wedding dress out of her cedar chest and hung it as a decoration.

We waited and waited for them to get home. Once we heard the garage door opening, we all stood in the family room and yelled "Happy Anniversary" as they walked through the door.

Mom and Dad were both very surprised and had no clue (so they say) what we were planning.

Nikki being there was also a surprise because she was supposed to be in Rexburg packing to move. We are so glad that she was able to make it! (Steven couldn't be there as he was in Gowen doing his "3 weeks this year" military training.) Mom and Dad's friends, Steve and Jolene Hernandez (who got them out of the house) also came in and joined us in the fun.

Everyone gave them a hug and then we went up to the kitchen/dining room to show them what we'd put together.


They opened their gift (not the silver tissue paper, Dad!)
and loved it -
telling us that while they were on the road they decided to make a Bucket List - and one of the things on it was to ride that train!

Then we filled up our plates with some yummy food and sat down to visit with them. Michaela and I each made a Chex mix (Original and Muddy Buddies),

Grandma made a cake, Steph and Clinton made a big jug of Sherley Temples to drink. We also had chocolate fondue because Mom thought they were bringing their friends back to the house after their dinner to eat dessert and play games. Hahaha. We also bought some after dinner mints in a light blue wrapper.

Then we told them we had a little game to play. We had made up a list of 30 questions, some serious like questions about the "early years" or their first impressions of each other, and some silly questions like what does the Roman Numeral XXX stand for? (30!).

It was a fun night and turned out really well. We are so lucky to have Mom and Dad!