An Enchanted Evening

What a wonderful surprise we were treated to last night for our 40th anniversary! We are so blessed to have such creative and thoughtful sons and daughters-in-law. We had been told to be ready to be picked up at 5:30 PM. We were chauffeured to a marina on Lake Macatawa and helped aboard a sailboat (owned by Jen's parents). Brian and Kevin served as steward and captain. After a toast with a delicious wine, we were served an amazing meal of several courses which had been prepared by Amy and Jen. There was a bit of rain when we started out, but it stopped when the main course was served. We then had a relaxing cruise around the lake. The steward cleaned up, and we were given an interesting narration of some of the highlights we were seeing. When we returned to the dock, we assumed that was the end.

We were then driven to Brian and Amy's house for a dessert made by Jen--lemon cheesecake (my favorite) with blueberry sauce. Then came the biggest surprise of the night. Kevin had "sneaked" from our house all the short movie reels taken when the kids were young (beginning in 1971) and had them made into a DVD. Sam got to stay up, and we watched and laughed for an hour and a half. Sam got to see his papa learn to walk, swim, play soccer, etc. Kevin saw himself often at the mercy of his older brothers, and, of course, Eric, as the oldest and only child for three years, had by far the most coverage. Even though Eric, Ang, and Gabe could not be with us, they called from Thailand and had been in on "the plot." Seeing the DVD brought back SO MANY precious and funny memories (Brian trying to stomp out the bubbles in a sheet of bubble wrap).

Words cannot express what a wonderful time we had and how grateful we are for our children and grandchildren. We were at Brian and Amy's house exactly one week after they came home from the hospital with day-old Sophia. We are in awe of all the planning, work, etc., that went into last night and only hope that our children could tell how much we enjoyed and appreciated it all.