50 Years!

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on October 25th.  That’s just an incredible achievement.  Their church threw them a surprise party the Sunday before and they decided at the last minute to spend a week in Nashville.

Here’s how it went down.  We found out the day of their party that they were going to Nashville to spend a week. Now, my parents have spent most of their lives living in Tennessee but they have never done more than drive though Nashville, the capital of the state and arguably the capital of the music world.  This was exciting news to me as I’d been trying to convince them to do something cool for their 50th AND because I was hoping that they would go somewhere easier for Robin and I to fly to so that we could punk their party. (Robin was not able to get away for more than a couple of days and no matter how you travel, getting to my parents home takes a full day) We left Friday afternoon after scrambling to get tickets and asking friends to take care of our kids. Friday evening we land in Nashville and Robin turns her phone on.  Katie had left us a detailed message letting us know where my parents were that evening, their room number and what their plans were for Saturday (their actual anniversary) just in case we couldn’t link up with them Friday night. I think my daughter has a future as an undercover agent as she manipulated my parents into having a late dinner and then turned around and let us know exactly where they were.  Robin and I took a cab to the resort where my parents were staying and I then called them feigning anger that they had not communicated that they had arrived safely in Nashville (my parents always want to know exactly where we’re at when we’re on vacation). It was hysterical. The short of it is that we surprised them as they came out of the restaurant.  The look on their faces when they saw us was priceless.  Dumbstruck is not too strong of a word.  That moment was worth all of the hoops that we (Robin mostly) jumped through to get there. We totally blew them away.

We were able to spend the whole day with them on Saturday and that night took them to Nashville’s best restaurant.  Sunday we went to church with them and then had to get back to the airport so that we could get home.  Just an incredible weekend and seeing my parents speechless was priceless.

I am so proud of my parents.  50 years together and their love for each other is still going strong.  Way to go!  I love you two!