50 - Day 1

9-9-61 was a special day. It's the day my parents were married. On 9-9-11, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. For at least a year or two we've been trying to decide what to do for their 50th anniversary. Do we have a party, go on a cruise, go to a cabin, rent Puff Daddy's yacht, dinner at home, charter an airplane? Finally it just got too annoying and expensive sounding and we gave it up. We (the kids) decided that they would love a book full of pictures. (I knew because my mom said she wanted one). We decided to make it awesome by scanning all their old slides and including those pictures in the book instead of just recent family pictures. Ben suggested we write letters to all their old friends and have them write notes for the book, too. It was a lot of work. Carrie stole Mom and Dad's Christmas Card list so I could send out letters to their friends, then Carrie and Maddie scanned 20 reels of slides, and 26 boxes of slides, plus numerous photographs, and put the pics online so we could all go through and choose our favorite shots. Ben designed the book, I collected letters from friends, organized, edited pictures and did whatever Ben told me to do. Ben worked really hard. Including putting in one all-nighter at work the night before the book was due. The book came out awesome!

Wait, wait, wait, I've gotten ahead of myself. Unbeknown to my parents, Evan and I flew in Friday, 9/9, and Carrie came to pick us up at the airport. We ran a few errands and planned to surprise them at lunch, with my brother, Rob. On the way to lunch we ran by Carrie's house to grab something. On the way in the house she grabbed the book so I could see it. As I was opening the cover, she came back into the garage and said, "Suzy, I've been robbed!" I asked if she was sure. Like, could the dog have done this? She assured me that whomever did this had hands. Fair enough. I grabbed a huge wrench from the work bench so I could beat up the robber, and Carrie called 911. We walked in the house just long enough to see the mess of jewelry on her bed before we got the heebie jeebies. Carrie called Robert and told him what happened, he called our parents and told them to go to Carrie's house, too. So, instead of surprising them at the restaurant, I surprised them by jumping out from behind the bushes of the house that had just been robbed. They were very surprised. At first they thought it was a joke and that the house hadn't been robbed. But... it had.

We eventually left poor Carrie there alone to wait for the cops, so we could get Evan home for a nap. The cops finally got there two hours later and dusted for prints (found 1 poor quality print). She discovered that they mostly took her gold things and thank goodness were too dumb to realize the value of pearls. They also hadn't made it through ALL her drawers to find more valuable stuff (they did, however, take her portable hard-drive with all the images she had just scanned for two months), so we think we might have surprised them when we opened the garage door. They could have run out the back door or front door. Oh, the front door was kicked in, by the way. It was a beautiful brand new door, but now it's repaired and kick-proof. Apparently these dorks like to go on foot and grab small things. And you should always answer your door because they will knock pretending to be salesmen and then break in if you don't answer. AND the cop told Carrie that she's lucky she wasn't home, because sometimes they are so desperate they will come in even if you are home. Scum bags. Anyhow, I digress from the details of such a lovely day.

So, no lunch, but there were dinner plans at the Sandia Resort & Casino. By the time Carrie got her door fixed, and ready we were only a little late for our 5:30 reservation. It was nice because the restaurant wasn't busy. We had a great view of the mountain and had yummy food. Although, we all agreed the BEST thing was the Crème brûlée that the waitress gave Mom and Dad for free.

After dinner we went back to Mom and Dad's house. Maddie was on duty there taking care of Evan and awaiting the delivery of a wedding cake. Poor Maddie had to deal with a screaming Evan, who was crying because of the barking dogs, who were barking because of the door bell, which was rung by the cake baker. It was very frustrating for the poor girl, but she managed to give cake set-up instructions, put Evan to bed, and have the house look good by the time we got there. Zach, Aaron, and Brian were there, too, when we got home.

We took some photos, ate some wedding cake (which looked similar to the original wedding cake), and my Dad gave my Mom a beautiful necklace symbolizing their marriage. Then our part of the program started. Remember how Carrie worked a bazillion hours scanning slides? Robert made a slide show out of some of the pictures, so we watched that. Mom and Dad were excited that their pictures were now digital!

(I just told them a potty joke to get them to smile... you can see their surprise:)

Then, we gave them the present: The book. Ben was hoping for some tears, and some tears Ben got. (I'm sad he had to miss being there, since he did so much work). The book turned out beautifully. The hours and hours of work payed off. It was a beautiful tribute to two people who made a wonderful life for a wonderful family. I, for one, really enjoyed working on it because so many of the pictures were from before I was born. I was born when my oldest sister, Tina, was 19, so there was a lot of life I missed out on! I felt like I got to learn a lot about their life back then. I could see their struggles, their fun, their sacrifices, and how their life began. AND I got to see how hot my parents were when they had 3 kids and they were 24 year-old kids, themselves.

I realized that through 50 years of marriage there are a lot of ups and downs. A lot of people give up these days, but I'm so grateful my parents didn't give up. There were times when it was hard, but they stuck it out, and are so grateful that they did. And you know what? If they would have given up, guess who wouldn't be here? ME! Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Dad, for not giving up. I like being here. And I am so grateful that I was born into our family.

Day 2 coming up... as soon as Carrie uploads the pictures :)