Washington :: Day 5

August 7

Bix and Marilynn's 40th wedding anniversary surprise party!

Ashley and Farrah wanted to do something special for their parents while we would all be together.

So they put together a surprise anniversary Luau party.

It is pretty much impossible to plan anything without Bix knowing about it!

He is our little planner and always has everything scheduled out months in advance when we visit.

The whole time we were trying to convince him we'd take care of Sunday dinner...

We even made the ribs he was planning to make on Sunday, on Friday. Ha ha.

They kind of found out about the party, but they didn't know who was all coming, etc.

They were still very surprised.

It was a great night and they loved being surrounded by their friends and family.

Surprise!!

Whit loved being outside and playing on the playground.

Marilynn was laughing the whole time..

Whit didn't quite know what to think of the water.

It was pretty cold but she still had to get in like the other kids were doing.

I love my sweet girl.

Whit was running around like crazy.

Twirling and doing summersault after summersault.

She cracks us up!!

She wouldn't sit still for one second to get a pic with grammy and papa.

You can barely see the tip of Mt. Rainer.

I had to include the cute email from Bix and Maril...

Everyone- thank you so much for the wonderful surprise yesterday. It was quite a shock to see everyone there. We were just expecting a smallfamily picnic. After all, our anniversary was way back in April. I always know what is going on around my house but Ryan and the girls were sneaking around all week and planning this party for months. Ashley copied my Contacts List from Outlook to email friends and also snuck in our garage to borrow some of our vases. Farrah said her computer had crashed so she needed to copy some of Alyssa’s pictures for her baptism but instead copied our vacation pictures. It has been quite a hectic week for us with Ryan and his family visiting from UT. and our granddaughter’s baptism but this was the ultimate celebration!

I’ve mentioned to some of you before that one of our favorite family movies was “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. We used to watch it every Christmas Eve. In the end Jimmy Stewart is facing financial ruin but all of his friends help him just in time for Christmas. One of the last scenes in the movie is a statement that No man is a failure if he has friends. Well today Maril and I feel like Jimmy Stewart! We were so amazed that everywhere we turned yesterday we were surrounded by our best friends!!! We’ve had a very difficult and trying year butit’s been a wonderful life!

Thank you all for being there for us through the years and especially yesterday.

We love you all.

Bix and Maril