Skip to main content

A 40th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

On June 3rd of this year, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. It wasn't until this past weekend, however, that they were able to celebrate the momentous occasion with their five kids, eight grandchildren and a few of their siblings as well.

The festivities began on Friday when my family arrived from Nebraska, Montana, parts of North Dakota and from across town right here in Bismarck. My youngest sister and younger brother fed the large group at a picnic at Sertoma Park with grilled burgers, hotdogs, homemade potato salad and lots of other goodies.

Saturday we all reunited where the celebration continued on the Lewis and Clark Riverboat on the Missouri River. Unfortunately, due to the high winds, the boat was unable to go anywhere but it was nice nonetheless. It did not escape anyone's mind that last year around the same time the very parking lot on which we all parked our vehicles had been well under water.
Faith loved her first time on a boat, even though it wasn't going anywhere!
The family took advantage of the opportunity of all being together by taking lots and lots of photos. Amber, my sister-in-law said that before marrying Mark she never knew of such a crazy picture-taking family.

The highlight of our time on the riverboat was my parents renewing their vows. It was a very sweet moment and us girls and maybe even a few of the guys were all in tears. My brother Todd did a great job officiating and stating what a rarity 40 years of marriage was in today's society.

Mom and Dad are definitely to be commended for raising their five kids in times of hardship and some of the challenges that they faced, including a few near-death experiences in the oilfield for my dad. They serve as a great example for me, my siblings and our spouses that no matter how tough it gets, it is best to stick it out together!
The Lawlars and their wonderful, great-looking spouses!
Dad and mom with the whole family.
After the riverboat experience we all went our separate ways to get ready for the 40th wedding anniversary dinner held at the Bistro. We had a beautiful private room, delicious food, great conversation and a fantastic slideshow that Amber so beautifully put together.

The slideshow took us all down memory lane from the time my dad was a little boy riding a Shetland pony to he and my mom's high school prom. There were lots of photos of us kids growing up and of course photos of the eight grandkids who are already growing up way too fast. An added bonus was that we all received a copy of the slideshow on DVD as a parting gift!
Enjoying a great dinner in honor of my mom and dad
It was a wonderful weekend and we will all have many memories to take away from this celebration. I'm sure it will be a time that is instilled in the hearts of my parents for many years to come.

By the way Happy Father's Day to my Dad whom I love very much and also my husband who I love as well -  Faith couldn't ask for a better daddy!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Used to Our New School Schedule

Today marks Faith's 8th day of school and we are all adjusting to a new schedule. Faith has made huge strides this past summer in sleeping better and having more energy so we decided to have her go to school from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 5 days a week. This is a change as last year she did not go Tuesday and Thursday afternoons due to how tired and worn out she would get. Faith's first day of 4th grade School starts at 8:30 a.m. but we asked if it would be okay for us to get her there at 9:00 instead. This allows us to more time to get her first feeding into her before she even gets to school. Her aides noticed last year that when we brought her to school without any food in her tummy, she was pretty sluggish and tired upon arrival. Sometimes, after getting her to school she wouldn't start getting her feeding until after 9:00 a.m. which meant, that because she gets a feeding every 3 hours, her last feeding of the day didn't end until 10:00 p.m. Another advantage to
1 comment
More from Faith's Mom's Blog

A Real Pain in the Arm

Last Wednesday I had my yearly doctor exam and when she said I should get my tetanus shot updated, I didn't think twice about it. The nurse said my arm would be sore for a couple of days, gave me a handout and stuck the needle in my arm. The next day my arm was sore and although I found it a little harder to pick up and carry Faith, I was glad the pain wasn't going to last long. Boy was I wrong! But not only was my arm sore, my whole body was. I felt achy and extremely tired. According to a medical site on the Internet, these were mild side effects of the Tetanus shot. If these were only mild side effects, I would really hate to have them at a moderate or severe level. On Friday, two days after getting the shot I felt so tired that I took a four hour nap after getting Faith off to school. Then on Saturday I took a three hour nap up until 7 o'clock but still felt tired and was able to go back to sleep around 10. On Sunday, finally the fatigue started wearing off and I didn
17 comments
More from Faith's Mom's Blog

Goodbye to Our Special Tomato

Today we said goodbye to our Special Tomato adaptive car seat. And special it was. It helped Faith stay safe and secure in our Hyundai driving her back and forth to therapy appointments, shopping excursions and many other activities. It also helped us through our time of not being able to afford an accessible van. Like all adaptive equipment , the special car seat was expensive and although it is the law that a child is secured in a car seat while traveling in a vehicle, neither health insurance nor Medicaid would pay for it. Thankfully, we were able to receive funds from the fundraiser, the Great American Bike Race ( GABR ) which helps families pay for services and equipment that insurance doesn't cover for kids with cerebral palsy and related disabilities.  After doing research on the Internet and talking to Faith's physical and occupational therapists, we decided to go for the Special Tomato adaptive car seat. You would think something with that name would be r
2 comments
More from Faith's Mom's Blog