HAPPY (surprise) 50th ANNIVERSARY!

When your parents reach 50 years married, a party MUST be thrown.

(kudos to Aaron and Rachael for organizing such a HUGE event)

 Siblings and grandchildren came together to help pull of this once in a lifetime party.

 From decorations to food preparation,

 to hair beautification,

to wait staff training...

 Everything went off without a hitch.

Except for the cheese tray...I think I re-arranged that darn cheese tray like 8 times.

 I was most impressed by the grandchildren.  They were in charge of waiting and busing tables.  They did a fantastic job. 

 And were very cute too!

 The decorators...(Jen and Rachael) did such a beautiful job.

 And what would a blog post be without a self-picture of THIS daughter of mine?  Funny. 

 After much preparation, the moment arrived.  Mom and Dad thought they were giving talks at a missionary fireside.  They spent weeks preparing their talks.  Instead, they opened the doors to find 150 of their closest friends and family.

 50 years together.

 Many more to come...

 I love that these two have created such a legacy...and I feel so blessed to be a part of it.

HAPPY (surprise) ANNIVERSARY TO MY TWO MOST FAVORITE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!

XO

YOUNG WOMEN IN EXCELLENCE

Tuesday night was our "Young Women in Excellence" Night...it's comparable to a Court of Honor for the scouting program.  The theme for the night was "RED CARPET".  We wanted to make it like an Oscar night.

Instead of "Oscars", we presented "YWIE's" 

(pronounce you-ee's)

Here are some of the decorations for that night...

Kayla strutting her 'stuff' on the red carpet!

The girls all had fun finding their 'star' on the red carpet.

After the girls talked about the projects that they have been working on through out the year, they had a special presentation for 8 women in the church that they best felt represented the 8 values in the Personal Progress Program.  After they talked about that particular woman, she was called up and presented with a "YWIE" (you-ee award) and crowned.

As Young Women's President, I then awarded the girls that had completed any of the 8 values with an award - comparable to a merit badge.

Kayla received her YW Recognition award (comparable to Eagle) earlier this year and as a motivation, she was able to go on and complete what is called the "Honor Bee".  I had the privilege as her mother AND YW President of presenting her the award

This group picture is of the girls with the women they awarded "YWIE's" to.

And then we enjoyed some refreshments afterwards.

There was a lot of work and planning that went in to this special night, but it was SO worth it.

STEVIE..OH STEVIE!

Saturday was my first day home from my long road trip.  The kids had Super Saturday down in Concord with some other youth so I  sent Steve ahead and then I was going to join them later.  They were scheduled to give service at nursing homes all over Concord.  While waiting for kids to arrive, Stevie and some others were playing basketball when the accident happened.  A boy was passing the ball in bounds as Stevie was guarding him.  His wrist (after the ball was released) collided with Stevie's hand.  She heard a crack and went down.  Steve took her to the local ER where they confirmed the break.  They wrapped her in a half cast and told us to schedule an appointment with an orthopedist.  

This is one of the x-rays of Stevie's hands.  If you look closely on the middle bone I have marked the top and bottom of her break - it fractured in a spiral type pattern.  Very odd for that part of the hand.

 So Tuesday I got her in to see the doctor.  He again confirmed her break and casted the hand.

 She chose blue for the color...school pride. :)

 Three weeks in the cast, then she'll move to a brace for three weeks and then buddy taping her middle and ring finger.

 That's if all goes well and she doesn't try to do too much too soon.

 See the nice 'clean' cast?  I dropped her back off at school to finish her day and she came home with it completely covered in signatures.  She did happen to save me a tiny square so that I could have the honor of signing MY name...so thoughtful.

The bad news is that she'll be out half of her basketball season.

DAYS 5 AND 6

Please excuse the delay in finishing (blogging about) my trip account.  On day 5 we arrived at Williamsport, PA and stayed with a most amazing family that Kara knows.  We left from there Friday morning and headed for home!  (finally)  Because we were so close to my (childhood) stomping grounds, I couldn't resist a visit to see Ben and my folks.  This was the first time Brady has been to Ben's grave.

Ben's grave was completely covered in leaves, you couldn't see any of his grave marker.  I'll be doing some fall clean up when I go back for Thanksgiving.

Grampy grabbed Brady from my arms the minute we arrived. 
(even though he just threw up all over me and on some of his outfit)

We didn't stay long, just long enough to get a squeeze from both mom and dad, use their bathroom, and eat a freshly baked cinnamon roll on our way back out the door.

Dad...you'd think I was odiferous after 6 days on the road or something.  C'MON!  I showered everyday.  I'm guessing it was Brady's vomit all of my shirt.

(or maybe I needed to upgrade my deodorant?)

We made a detour to Seabrook, NH to pick up Kara's car and do a couple loads of laundry so that Brady could have a break and then back in the car around 8:30pm.  It took me 90 minutes from there and I FINALLY rolled into my driveway at 10pm EST.  The kids greeted me so exstatically...made me feel very loved and missed.  It's good to finally be home!  A big thanks to Mom and Dad Orton for allowing us to inherit your beautifully taken care of truck and to Kara for being my sidekick all the way cross-country!

XO