Anniversary Surprise

My parents will have been married for 30 years in December.

30 years. Successfully.

They didn’t have much when they got married.
When I was born (I’m the oldest), they both had college degrees, but my dad dug ditches and worked at Pizza Hut since that’s all he could find to make a living.
We had one car and even spent time living with my grandparents.
But we were happy.

Financially, things got better—but it was never about that.

We were all happy…because they were happy.
And even when things were “rough”, we always knew that everything would be ok…because we loved each other.
Mom and Dad loved each other. And they loved God.

And THAT is truly worth more than anything any parents could ever give their children.

They got married in my grandparents’ house in front of the Christmas tree.
They never went on a “honeymoon”.
Growing up, I only remember a few weekend getaways—some being associated with business or youth group trips.

So we decided that it was time to thank them—and celebrate such a milestone with them…

By sending them to the British Virgin Islands!!! WHAT?!

Along with many friends and family, this trip has come together perfectly.

But such a big celebration, calls for an equally creative way to announce it.

So, I made a scrapbook. It was a total and complete success.

Not only were they completely surprised by the trip, they we more than thankful and touched by the cards and letters we had collected. So, here’s the initial “Thank You” to all of you who participated.

(PS- It’s not too late to send it! They’d always love to hear from you!!!)

Without further ado—a wonderful way to tell someone of a big surprise.
(No, the pictures aren’t the greatest. Yes, I know I could have typed things out. I am NOT a master-scrapbooker, so don’t judge the work. It’s just a WAY cool idea. I don’t do this for a living…)

First of all, if you are ever going to scrapbook, this is the reality of the situation…at least in my world.
Consider yourself warned…

This was the beginning of their scrapbook journey…

(I always loved looking at old pictures- haha whether they did or not!!!)

This is one of my favorite pictures of all of us- here is the photographer’s website!

I won’t bore you with every page …let’s get to the good part!

So then we gave them a bag of Scrabble letters with velcro on the back and made them figure it out.
We alternated the sides of the velcro used for each word so that it didn’t take ALLLLLLL day…

This is the before…. (My mom has this obsession with Firebird T-Tops…)

And after…

So after my mom being like “What? What does that mean?!” They turned the page to find the booking information, as well as some information from the resort website and such.

This was probably one of my favorite parts of the entire scrapbook–all of the cards and letters from friends and family who decided to celebrate with them in this awesome event.

So, again, thank you ALL who participated. They were pretty much speechless. 🙂

Happy 30th Anniversary, Mom and Dad. You’ve been an inspiration to many- including your own kids.
Thanks for stickin’ it out- and having a FUN marriage.
It is truly a blessing.

Enjoy the beach!!!