30 years.

the parentals celebrated their 30th anniversary on july 30. we are pretty excited for them. it's a pretty huge thing these days. well... we, the children, made them a book of 30 reasons why we love them. and  i have to admit... it was pretty fantastic. we sure do love them.

my dad gave my mom a pearl ring [us girls might have picked it out]. btdubs, the 30th anniversary is the "pearl anniversary"...

and mom gave dad personalized and pearlized m&m's... with their little faces on them and everything! they were fantastic...

funny thing is, that's all they thought they were getting, BUT! us kids had started planning a surprise party for them a couple of months ahead. dad actually knew about it... but mom sure didn't. [a little bit of background info on our family. we don't do surprises and we don't really do secrets... in fact, i can't remember why we even decided on a surprise party. we like to talk to each other. and we are really good at it. so i'm still pretty shocked that we actually kept it a surprise!]

we sent out invitations... see how adorable they were?

and then changed the date, so we sent out another on... still just as cute. 

skip ahead to the day of... i was freaking out. aunt nancy was coming into town and mom wasn't wanting to leave the house. we had to work fast with nancy to get her out of the house.... then she didn't want to put makeup on. we finally convinced her to put mascara on... good thing too or else she wouldn't have been happy with us. they finally left the house so I could start decorating... Austin did an ice and dr. p run. it was much needed. 

kelsey came in a day early from utah and austin and the sanders came up and we were working feverishly to get everything ready in 3 hours. amazingly enough, everything came together just how i envisioned it. 

the guests showed up, then the parent's showed up... and mom was super duper surprised. we definitely won. the night continued with lots of laughs, stories, and yummy yummy food [and fabulous decorations].

the toast...

thank you to all those who made our parent's surprise party a success. we sincerely appreciate your love and friendship. 

and to mama and daddy... you truly are the perfect example of a happy couple, proud parents, and an eternal marriage. 

we love you!!