Vacation 2013: Day One

Day One began at the tender hour of 3:00 am. All 12 of us (Alix and Kate, too) piled into the van to head south. After talking about “the cation” and  “Ginia Beach” for weeks, Trent was a bit reticent (i.e., fussy) about being put into his carseat at 4:00 am. I tried to ease him into the idea, reminding him where we were going, asking him if he wanted to come, too. “No” was his repeated answer. Finally, I asked him if he wanted me or Daddy to put him in the car. He decided he’d rather I do it. ;-)  Once we got going, things  smoothed out and he started to warm up to the idea.

We met up with the Bruces, Mom and Dad and Uncle Kent and headed out, Rachel at the wheel and the rest of us wedged in tightly, hemmed in by suitcases, pillows, books and food.

Several of us napped (and Trent is still asleep at 8:08, thankfully), but I think a few of the girls stayed awake the whole time, chatting quietly in the back.

Breakfast was a mixture of granola bars, hard-boiled eggs, strawberries, Fig Newtons, brown sugar Pop Tarts and orange juice. Believe it or not, in spite of all that food and all these kids, it went pretty smoothly! I guess they really are getting older. And now we’re in Kentucky, watching the hills and pastures of grazing horses and cows roll by. We’re keeping in contact with the others via a walkie talkie, which we bought way back in 2000, when we started taking family vacations.

Lots of excitement and we’re just so glad vacation is finally HERE!!

Thoughts on Mom and Dad’s Golden Anniversary party

You know how you look forward to a big event, worrying about all the details, wondering how it will all pull together ... IF it will all pull together? And then the day finally comes and it ends up being even more spectacular and memorable than you imagined! That’s how my parents’ 50th anniversary party went.

Back in January, Jennifer suggested that Glenn and I be in charge of taking pictures of the day, but I knew even then that it would be very difficult for me to devote the time to taking pictures, so Glenn agreed to be in charge of pictures. Good thing. I ended up with about 25 pictures (Erica took some of the decorations); he took over 500.  :o)  But I will share the best of what I have because I really want to document everything while it’s still fresh in my memory.

The tent

The tent was put up on Wednesday and Mom was so bowled over by it she could hardly describe it over the phone. It took up most of their small backyard! It was tempting to drive down there just to see it, but I didn’t want to take time away from the scanning for the PowerPoint Presentation, plus several of the kids got colds mid-week, so I reluctantly decided to stay home and let the kids rest. We went down on Friday to decorate and it was HUGE!  The tables and chairs had also been delivered and friend Dayla had lent some of her white lights to decorate trees and bushes. Even with no décor (except the bunting Jennifer and Kelly made), it was just enchanting at night.

It ended up being a lovely, sunny day in the low ‘80s -- not too hot or humid. But, it did get warm in the sun, so it sure was nice to have the big tent.

The Balloons

Something I realized through this: you can never have too many balloons. The balloons were used to frame the big screen and also camouflage the tent poles. But lots of balloons also say this: today is a really special day.

When we got there on Saturday morning, a lot of the balloons had already been put up by the “balloon people.” It was incredible. Glenn actually took a funny picture of me standing there staring at it all with my mouth gaping open.  :-D

Mom

On Saturday morning, Heather did Mom’s hair and a friend did her make-up. She’d picked out a dress just a couple of days before the big day and kept it hidden to surprise Dad.

She looked really beautiful. The kids were still talking about her the next day, “Grandma looked sooooo pretty!” Even 5-year-old Grant told her. She really looked lovely.  :-)

Mom is posing with James, the man who constructed the giant record, book and vinyl record columns.

I snapped this right after she came out in her party glory.  She was surveying all her domain.  :-)

Her wedding dress was on display on a dressmaker’s form, which was slightly too big around for the dress. She was only 18 when they were married and had a 24-inch waist.

Dad

Days before the party, Dad ended up trying on the jacket he wore on their wedding day and it fit! So he wore that. Most of the people I talked to didn’t know it was the same jacket, because he wasn’t saying anything about it. A cousin told me she guessed when, after she complimented him, he said “Thanks. It’s an original.”  :-)

 

 

Grandma

Grandma (Mom’s mom) turned 92 in June and has been in slowly declining health the past few years. None of us would’ve dreamed she could be at the party, but a good friend from the rehab facility where Grandma lives made all the arrangements and it was a wonderful surprise for Mom and Dad. It was such a tender moment when they wheeled her into the tent - definitely a highlight of the day for all of us! And then we girls had to sing right after that! Not fair! We couldn’t look at any of them.  ;-)

Pictures and Memories

With the help of Rachel doing the picture arranging and taping and sisters and Mom helping with milestones, we set up 5 boards – one for each decade – along with highlights from each decade. That was fun, and it reminded me of how important it is to document your pictures! Mom has told me for years to write down dates and names on the backs of pictures. I was glad she has been so faithful in doing that!

It was amazing to me how many pictures we have of Mom and Dad, just the two of them, together. Amazing especially when you think of how many kids and grandkids there are. In fact, there were so many good photos of the two of them that I decided to put them all together at the end of the presentation, one after another, in chronological order

This is a collage I just created of the ones I used (there were more I kept finding after the fact!).

The Program

This is a copy of the program we printed outlining the order of singing and memory-sharing we did to celebrate the day. We printed off 12 of them and put them in clear, plastic frames on each table. No, I did not get pictures of the actual presentation, which involved singing and a slideshow of Mom and Dad’s “story”.  :-)  But Glenn did (hint, hint, Glenn!).

More pictures

More décor …

More fun …

(Most of the rest of these were taken once the party was winding down, and I could catch my breath long enough to pick the camera back up. :-)

Watching the movie “Up” after it was all over.

Kelly made badges for each of us girls to wear. We decided to use school pictures of us, because the guests who haven’t seen us since then might recognize us in pictures from that time. I didn’t realize until I saw this picture how much Claire looks like me.  :-)

 

More love …

 

Mom and Dad

They have always demonstrated so many important ideals in a marriage: teamwork, sacrifice, selflessness. Through the years, none of us kids ever doubted their complete devotion to each other. Anyone who knows them (from their church friends to the cashier at the grocery) knows also of their devotion to the rest of us, but all of the stability and love in our family flows from their special relationship.

This is from a note I wrote to a friend earlier today:

There are some marriages that make it to the 50-year mark, and you get the feeling that the couple just sort of dug in and stuck it out, gritting their teeth through most of it. Not so with my parents. Of course, they’re human and have their faults and weaknesses and I know they had rough patches through the years, probably even some times of “digging in” and “gritting their teeth.” But I truly feel like their marriage has been a “labor of love.” I remember having a conversation with Mom about marriage when I was a teenager. She said “We hear people say marriage should be 50/50, but Dad and I have always felt like the other gives 100%.”

Independence Day, 2013

Independence Day dawned overcast and cool this year. And I was happy. For some reason, my outside pictures often turn out better on cloudy days. So, this year, there are lots and lots of pictures!

Heading Out

Everybody was so excited to go down to Grandma and Grandpa’s. Here’s little Trent, who was “Born in the U.S.A.” :-D He actually wore that thing for quite a long time that day. I was surprised! He’s getting older. <<sniff, sniff>>

Grant is getting older, too, and is able to contain his excitement on big days like the Fourth.

 

Since the girls are getting older, they’re able to help plan for big days like this. Courtney really wanted to do some red, white and blue fingernail painting, so there were lots of patriot fingernails “on hand” ;-)

The nail designs got more fancy as the day went on.

The Fourth of July Carnival

At Mom and Dad’s, the kids took the carnival idea from last year and expanded on it.

There were booths for making “Independence Day books”, “Independence Day wands,” a beauty salon booth and of course a nail salon. Unfortunately, there were so many kids manning the booths, that there weren’t a lot of customers to visit the booths, so there was a lot of sitting and waiting.

and waiting …

and waiting …

and waiting.

Not everyone was bored. The nail salon stayed busy.

As did the beauty salon.

But the most popular attraction was the face painting. The wait time was quite lengthy. And with good reason; the results were pretty amazing.

 

Here’s Claire, well on her way to becoming a cute bunny.

There was also a very cute clown.

One of the most requested designs was an animal of some sort. There were several puppies, which we managed to line up at one point for a photo.  Good doggies.

Here are some close-ups of Isabella’s face paint (courtesy of Glenn), which was pretty amazing:

 

Later, caving to intense peer pressure, Claire wiped off the bunny face and decided to become a puppy, too.

Kate painted this beautiful black stallion on Sarah, which looked so much like Walter Farley’s Black Stallion.

 

Noah, in true boyish fashion, requested a snake.

Second in popularity to the animals were requests for patriotic symbols: flags and fireworks.

  

  

and even a patriotic butterfly

(I couldn’t pick just one picture of Brooke here; she’s way off the cute-meter.)

When it was Grant’s turn, he asked Kate to draw a mustache “like this” and, with his fingers, traced curly swirls on his cheeks. I’m not sure where he saw a mustache like that, but seeing the final product was the highlight of the day for me.

 

Oh, wait, I almost forgot about Magnum P.I. (a.k.a. Dad). Definitely in contention for highlight-of-the-day moment for me. The background is this: a few days earlier, the kids caught some of an episode of Magnum P.I. Several of them thought Magnum P.I. looked like Grandpa! Back in the ‘80s, when the show was popular, Dad had a mustache similar to the actor, Tom Selleck. So, Dad asked Kate to paint a mustache on him, as a nod to his separated-at-birth twin, Magnum P.I. Hilarious!

Desserts

(or “One of These Things is Not Like the Others”)

I would be remiss if I did not mention the desserts. Desserts are very near and dear to this family, and any excuse to get together is a good reason to make lots of tasty desserts. Holidays usually bring out the Very Special desserts. This year was no exception. Jennifer made some very cute, individually-wrapped homemade ice cream sandwiches. Heather outdid herself in this department, as usual, and made some adorable, and equally delicious strawberry cupcakes.

We made Texas Sheet Cake, homemade vanilla ice cream, white chocolate dipped strawberries and the traditional Flag Cookies.

Kelly made a delicious 9 x 13 Ice Cream Cake, strawberry pretzel salad, a big container of Oreo Muddy Buddies (picture courtesy of Kelly’s Pinterest board), which were devoured before the day was over, in spite of their being very rich.

And last but not least, this interesting creation:

Hee-hee-hee. Makes me giggle just to look at it. :-) The story behind this is that one of the kids was in charge of making the flag cookies (Kelly and I usually each make one batch), but the dough was too crumbly to roll out, so they improvised and, thanks to some too-runny icing, came out with this modern-art version of our American flag.  :-)  Do you see it? I’m sure Picasso would be proud.  :-)  I got a kick out of teasing Kelly about this dessert, which sat on the dessert table untouched for most of the day. Eventually, someone cut some squares out of it and I’m told it was quite tasty. No worries, Kelly, your reputation as the Martha Stewart of the Midwest remains untarnished. Your blog is testimony to that!  :-)

A Few Shots of The Littles (and of the Big People having as much fun as The Littles)

What would a summer holiday be without braided pigtails? Can’t have enough of those!

Trent, hamming it up, as usual. I seriously have no idea where he gets these moves. Look at Avery cracking up in the background!

 

And then there are the big kids, having as much fun as the littles.

After pushing several of the little guys on the swings for awhile, Chuck finally joined in on the fun … and Trent sprinted over to help push. 

Some of the teenagers thought the swings looked pretty fun, too, especially when you’re all linked up together. :-)

Seeing this picture reminds me of another Fourth of July, several years ago, when I took a picture of the same four kids. What a difference a few years makes! They’re not all in the same order (except Avery, of course), but it’s pretty easy to tell who’s who.

After he saw Kelly passing out scoops of Ice Cream Cake to the kids, Dad decided to see if he could pull one over on Kelly and get his own scoop. Amazingly, she never caught on!  ;-)

And here are our own Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, cutting a serious rug to Brooke and Sophia’s rousing rendition of “Heart and Soul” on the piano. Too fun!

 

We finished up the day with sparklers and fireworks at the Orrs’.

The interesting blues in this picture were created from a couple of the kids swinging around their blue glow sticks.

     

Thanks to Courtney for taking the pictures of the fireworks (purchased by Glenn, set off by Luke) as I was sitting inside the Orr home for much of the show with two little boys holding their hands over their ears.  :-D

Happy Fourth of July!