On January 5th, we were able to help throw a surprise 50th wedding anniversary for my wonderful in-laws. Brent and I went to Oregon to enjoy a week with all of the family. We went after the holidays with Brent’s parents anniversary in mind. Brent and his siblings planned the party together from all different parts of the country. It was going to be a great occasion! It turned out that Brent’s parents were expecting something just because it was their 50th. My parents had several of Brent’s family members over for a get together on New Year’s Day and Brent’s parents thought that we were going to celebrate their anniversary then. Turns out we didn’t! No one was even mentioning that it was their anniversary in a couple of days.
Brent and I were in charge of getting them to the party and we were racking our brains for ideas of how to get them there. We had rented out the local Grange for the days event and it turned out that Brent’s parents needed to swing by to drop something off. Perfect! We didn’t even have to try! We made “plans” to go have lunch with my parents down in the Dalles so that we would be able to have a time frame for when we needed to leave. The evening prior to the event, Brent’s parents started bringing out several old photos of themselves and the family. They handed me their wedding album! It was perfect. Brent hid a few of them in his bag to show around at the party.
The morning of I had a long run planned, so I ran into town. Brent came in picked me up at his aunt’s and uncle’s place in town where we quickly freshened up. We ran over to the Grange with the photos and a little bit of sound equipment. We dropped them off as others were already there busily setting up and preparing for the festivities! We didn’t stay long because we didn’t want Brent’s parents to start wondering where we were.
We headed back up to their place and had to waist time to try and get them not to leave! We were coming up with weird things to talk about. They were both looking pretty nice as they had a suspicion something was going on down at my parents for lunch. No one was calling to wish them a happy anniversary nor were we telling them. We didn’t want to bring it up just in case.
We made our way out the door and headed for the Grange. The snow was really starting to come down as it covered the hills. It made for a beautiful setting. We drove up on the Grange as their were several vehicles there. I thought for sure they would know at that point, but they didn’t. They just thought there was some event going on. We decided to go ahead and go in since they needed to drop something off. Then all of a sudden everyone saw them and yelled surprise! They knew it was for them.
They were overwhelmed with everyone that had showed up. My mother-in-law started tearing up and had the biggest smile on her face! It was so great to be apart of making that happen. The rest of the party we spent mingling around, eating lunch and then cutting the cake. My father-in-law had a great little speech and he handed my mother-in-law a new “engagement” ring. She has lost hers several years ago. What a fun moment to be a part of!
I could not have asked for better in-laws. These two created a wonderful family that I am ever so thankful to be a part of. I love every moment of being a Powell. Happy 50th to my wonderful in-laws. I can’t wait to spend that same amount of time with Brent.