Happy 50th Anniversary!

Last weekend my whole family went home to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. It was such a joyful experience and left us wanting to put our family first and live for a golden anniversary of our own.

The boys were in heaven playing in the huge backyard and on the neighbor's playground equipment. Sam fell in love with this "baby" as he called her and gave her kisses. I guess he felt like I was intruding because he wouldn't do it with me around.

Here he is with Grammy and "Papa" before bed our last night. He has been asking for Papa each day since we got home. We'll have to go back soon.


Maybe this huge lawn mower is why Sam is so anxious to go back. He waves to the men mowing our lawn each week and was so thrilled to be able to sit on a life-sized mower!


Here's Michael looking out the airplane window. He was such a good boy on the plane.

This is at the zoo with his cousins. Michael loves to walk like a penguin so he was excited to see real penguins in action! We saw five baby tigers. They were playing and Michael kept shouting at them "No push!" I guess he's been listening to me after all! They also had a baby zebra and a baby camel. They loved seeing all of the animals we don't have at our zoo and the bratwurst I just had to buy us for lunch! They don't make them like that here!


He amazed us all with his new-found tower building skills with Grandma's duplo blocks. His cousins held him up high when he couldn't reach the top anymore.


Here's the "B Team" cousins after a fun game of Celebrity.


Cousin D with Michael and Sam. They all look way too old. I'm not ready to have pre-schoolers but they love acting big with their cousins.


Here's Michael with Grandpa and Grammy. He enjoyed calling down the laundry shoot to her and hearing her answer back!


Grammy reading Sam a story our first night. He was hooked.

Michael sitting in my old high chair!

Dave bought a special-order Princess Torte (a half sheet!) that we ate over the course of the three days we were all together. It's white cake with one layer of vanilla custard, one layer of whole, fresh raspberries with whipped cream, all covered with marzipan. We all sat around the kitchen table to eat it together. We didn't think we'd finish it, but somehow it slowly disappeared!

After getting some family pictures taken in front of the temple, we all headed out to dinner together. We had so much fun sitting all around together without any kids to distract the conversation. Then, we came home for a small program in the living room. We sang "Love at Home" which we used to sing every Family Home Evening, then we watched a thirty-minute DVD slide show of pictures set to music depicting Mom and Dad's lives so far. We were all crying looking at the sweet pictures that brought back so many memories and described how hard Mom and Dad have worked to raise their family. Their love for each other and for their children is truly binding. We all want to be with them and each other forever.

It was interesting that there were no pictures of Dad's work on the slide show. His most important work has been being a devoted husband and loving father. There really is no greater success than a happy family. It doesn't matter what we do to put food on the table as long as we're honest doing it. What matters are our relationships with each other and our dedication to the gospel. That is what will give us families that want to be together eternally and the best chance of being worthy of that blessing.


Sisters.

Married for ten years and back at our temple together.