Surprise! My Family is Awesome

There are a lot of amazing things I could write about my mom.  She is fun, happy, loving, hardworking, dedicated, moral, positive, bright, giving... the list goes on and on. Aaaaaand today is her birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!  

But not only that - my dad is amazing too (!!!) and tomorrow is their wedding anniversary. Their 40th Anniversary. A big celebration is in order!  So...

Two weeks ago, on the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, my Dad needed my Mom's help to go get some farm equipment from the field and drive it back. She was busy with yard work and such, but dropped everything to go with him - as long as he promised to hurry.  He drove very slowly. She was getting impatient and said, quote: "Do I have to drive this slowly on the way back?" (Hehe.) As they came near our house on the way to the field, Dad told Mom that I (Kristen) needed to show them something real quick. Fine. Mom hopped out of the pickup and came hurrying in. 

S U R P R I S E !  

All of the children and grandchildren came to celebrate!  And yes, Mom was surprised. I still can't believe we pulled it off.  My sisters' families all traveled here from Utah for the party, and we even hid their cars way back by a field so Mom wouldn't see them on the way in. It all worked! (I never realized how hard it would be to plan something big without my mom knowing. Good job getting her here, Dad!) The house was full of hugs and cheers and happy people. 

A few minutes later my brother Ben drove up with Mom's next surprise.  He built this train for her! She had seen one before and mentioned how much the grand kids would love it.  Ben worked fast and hard and got it done in time for the party (two weeks earlier than he had planned).  It was really cold outside but we couldn't resist taking it for a spin.    

Ben drove the kids around in circles and loops and around the house. We kept adding more and more kids, until finally all 26 grandchildren were in it at the same time!  

Even the littlest one. Josh wasn't sure what to think. 

Then it was the big kids' turn.  My parents and siblings: Dad, Mom, Rachelle, Charlotte, Ben, Jaclyn (texting?), and Kristen. We have fun pictures of us trying to climb back out. Those will stay in the vault.   

The Original Seven!  

When did we all grow up? 

(This is a good place for Mom's disclaimer. She felt bad that she was wearing gardening clothes. We all thought she looked perfectly fine, of course. Dirty knees are the new style. Hehe. No really, she is always beautiful.) 

Back in the house, we ate 12 feet of sub sandwiches and some other good stuff. This was meant to be outdoors but we did just fine inside. 

We had Mom and Dad open presents from our families. A lot of the kids drew pictures for them too. 

Here's the Family Tree that my sister created. There is one branch for each family and one fingerprint leaf for each grandchild, with their names. That's a pretty impressive Family Tree! And it all started with two people 40 years ago.

We also made a list of 100 Things We Love About Grandma and Grandpa, with everyone contributing a few. We read it out loud and had some good laughs. My personal favorite on the list is that my 2-year-old niece, Heidi, said that her favorite thing about Grandma's house is "Kristen." Of course!  

Then on to the cake.  Happy Birthday and Anniversary! (Ben came up with the theme. Clever, no?) We had fun with it. That's a really nice picture of my parents too. I think it will be one of my favorites. Look at how happy and dignified they look.  Keep that in mind.  And then:

Yup. That's my mom and dad! 

And that seemed to set the stage for the candle-blowing: 

I can't stop laughing. I would tell what happened but I'm sure you had to be there. And that's all I will say about that. 

(But a note to Kristen-of-the-future: You wrote about it in your journal. It's worth looking up.) 

I'm very proud of my parents and thankful for their sacrifice and love all these years. 

We went on to have a wonderful weekend together as a BIG family. And like the balloons said, which were spread all over the house:

 "HAPPY 40 YEARS! And the party continues..."