25th Anniversary Party

My parents just celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary on September 20th. Hillary (my sister) and I have been planning a surprise party for them for a long time now! I think we started sometime in the beginning of the summer or even the end of last school year. We had the party this past weekend on Saturday at my aunt Janna's house! Hillary mailed out invitations about a month ago and EVERYONE kept it a surprise...no mishaps at all!!!!!!! The hardest part was getting my parents out to my aunt's house. A week prior to the party Hillary told my parents that we wanted to take them out somewhere nice for their anniversary and it was our treat. She also told them they needed to dress nice, and it would take about 45 minutes to get there. Well, all day Saturday my mom just kept trying to pump us for information and she was getting really nervous and all worked up because we were keeping everything a surprise! Hillary and I left to go to my aunt's house at 4pm to meet the caterer (Nancy Ridgeway...highly recommend her if you are in the Sherman area) and told my parents we had to go pick up their anniversary present that Hillary had special ordered. We got back home and everyone got in the car and we headed back out to my aunt's house with my parents in tow. When we arrived and they saw all the cars, I think my dad wanted to kill me! They walked in and were VERY SURPRISED!! Many of their close friends and family members were there to welcome them!!!!!!!!!!! Once the initial shock of everything was over we had them sit down on the couch and my Uncle Thomas started to sing the song "Lady", which happens to be the song that my dad sang to my mom at their wedding! As soon as he started to sing the tears from my mom just started to flow! After the song we played a slide show of pictures from the past 25 years with a very special video message from my brother, Ross, who is currently serving a mission in San Diego for our church. (Hillary put together the slide show and worked SO HARD on it! Thank you!!) After the slide show people just ate and mingled!!!!!!!! All in all it was a great night!!!!!! Unfortunately we didn't get very many pictures...oh well! Here are a few...