50 Years

Today is my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary.

I am in awe, I’m inspired, and so thankful that they have taken every single day of the last 50 years to be married- in good times and bad, in all the seasons and everything that life has brought their way. They raised 7 sons, one with special needs and have impacted SO many people with love and care.

This is just such an amazing milestone so I wanted to write a quick blog post honoring that and sharing about the 50th wedding anniversary party that we had for them during our family reunion two weeks ago.

Back in April, the sisters in law starting putting together plans for this party. We knew Jim and Martha would want to be simple and quiet, nothing flashy or fancy. We knew the whole family would be together for our family reunion and so we decided to go ahead and book the local park pavilion and invite some of their hometown friends (the lake is about an hour away from the hometown). We also decided we wanted it to be a surprise for them! I sent out invitations at the beginning of the summer and then my other sister in laws each took a job – food, decoration, drinks, and set-up. It was seriously the easiest party I’ve ever planned haha!

Keeping the secret was easy until the day of the party, and then it became quite the challenge! We needed to get 35 people (including some very small children) out of the house to the correct location at the right time without Jim and Martha knowing – that was a challenge! We had a plan to go play pickle ball after lunch, but after breakfast Jim announced that the golf cart was leaving for pickle ball! We also realized that there was a whole antique market/fair thing happening at the park at the same time. So we were trying to make sure that no one else was taking over the pavilion. The adults instructed all the kids to NOT go on the boat after lunch, and Grandpa said he was so confused as to why no one wanted to go out on the boat with him. The kids were SO sweet to keep the secret and there was not one complaint that we were having a party instead of being on the boat. It was truly the sweetest!

After lunch we kicked it into high gear while trying to act really nonchalant. The sisters had a text group going nonstop, even when we were in the same room haha. Two of the sisters left early to go set up the party and the food, and my mother in law saw them pulling out of the driveway. She asked me where they were going, and I had no idea how to answer so I just said “for a drive!!” Hahaha. No one goes “for a drive” during the family reunion, but she wasn’t too suspicious.

Next, we tried to gather and hustle all the children and everyone out of the house without Dad and Mom tagging along. Theo messed with the battery of our van so that he wold have “a problem” that would delay them from leaving the house. Our story was that we were all going to go to the antique festival TOGETHER. HAHAHA…again, not really and Hines family reunion type of activity. Then, as soon as Dad realized that the van battery was “dead”, he flagged down another vehicle and took a ride with them! Ha! So instead of a little bit of buffer time to get ready, we had two minutes to get into surprise position!

They hopped out of their vehicle and were very, very confused. We all shouted SURPRISE…still confused. Then we yelled HAPPY ANNIVERSARY…and they broke out in giant smiles and total shock. It was so worth it.

They had about 20 friends make the hour drive to come join the party, but most of them arrived “open house” style, so each time a new friend arrive, Jim and Martha would jump up in total surprise AGAIN. It was the best!

When I say we kept it simple, I really mean that we kept it simple- and it was PERFECT. It truly felt like were celebrating them, not stressing out about pulling off the perfect event. It was so sweet to have all 23 of their grandchildren there, and watching the grandchildren watch Jim and Martha was really special. They truly have build a legacy and we are starting to see the long-lasting fruits of that now.

We played one game, sometimes called “The Newlywed Game” with shoes. Jim and Martha answered correctly on every single question. It’s was so funny to see how in sync they were with their answers!