A 70th Anniversary Weekend

What a WEEKEND! Bowen, Britt and I flew to Memphis early on Thursday morning, rented a car, and then drove the three hours to my parent’s house to celebrate my maternal grandparent’s 70th wedding anniversary. I’m not even kidding when I tell you it felt an awful lot like a wedding weekend. 🙂 We had events Friday, Saturday, and Sunday that kept us busy. We decorated, cooked, and ate ALL THE DESSERTS for three glorious days. And I thought I’d share a closer look at all the fun with you…

Friday we all met at my cousin, Whitney’s house, for pizza and swimming. While I love any type of pool party I especially enjoy the ones where adults actually get in the water. Even in Missouri, it’s WAY too hot right now to just observe all the fun.

The great-grandchildren who were there to party on Friday night. Some live in Kansas, others in Tennessee, my people are in Texas, and a big group is in Missouri. So much fun getting to be together for an entire weekend!

Check out these cuties!

Saturday, I was not on my picture taking “A” game! We had a delicious lunch at my parent’s church. This lunch was my grandpa’s favorite…fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, macaroni & cheese, green beans, and corn. Their church has a big gym where the kids could play and run amuck, adults could visit AND it was inside which meant AIR CONDITIONING! My grandparents have three daughters…Aunt Rene’, my mom’s twin, sister, Aunt Gina, and my mom, Tina. They have seven grandchildren-five girls and two boys and now seven grandchildren in-laws {is that even a thing?}. And seventeen great-grandchildren even out the crew.

I don’t talk about this part of my life much because not all the bits and pieces of my life should be shared on the internet but until the second grade I lived in Oran, Missouri, in a house just about two blocks away from my grandparents. When my parents got divorced, my mom and I would go over to my grandparents every evening to have dinner with them. They were and still are SUPER important people in my life. And they are the reason Bowen got the middle name, Hency. {That’s their last name.} Needless to say, we were PUMPED about celebrating them!

After the lunch, we had another swim party at my parent’s house. And we followed it up with a Saturday night decorating session of my grandparent’s Fellowship Hall at their church. Balloon arch, anyone?

Remember I mentioned the great-grand children were singing, “Jesus Loves Me” at church on Sunday? Well, it happened. Bowen Slaughter came THROUGH! I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t have to make eye contact and mouth, “SMILE”, to him. 😉 But they did GREAT!

I have some very talented people in my family. My uncle led worship, cousin played the piano, a group of five sang a special song and then my cousin’s husband preached! It was such a good service and my grandparents’ church was so kind to let our family take over with a special service.

After church it was our last chance to party for these two, Bill and Ruth, who’ve been married for 70 years! They invited a few friends to join the family for my grandma’s favorites…a big taco bar with all the fixin’s.

My grandparents with their three daughters.

And their significant others 🙂

The great-grandchildren who were in attendance…if you count, only my two older kids were missing! While they MISSED seeing everyone, they were probably a bit relieved they didn’t have to sing, Jesus Loves Me. haha!

My mom’s group…my brother, sister-in-law and their two boys along with 1/2 my crew.

We were all a bit smitten with the youngest in the bunch. Isn’t he a CUTIE?

I begged Hall’s mom and dad to let me bring him to Texas but they didn’t think it’d be a good idea. BOOO!

And just for fun this was the Slaughter four at Hall’s parents wedding about eleven years ago. Ebby Lee and Nix were flower girl and ring bearer. And I was just a couple months pregnant with Bowen. Time flies!

And just like a typical wedding weekend, we ended the fun with cutting of the cake.

My cousin, Whitney, and I tried to recreate this picture from 20 years ago!

How’d we do?

And one last picture of the entire group before we all dispersed and went our separate ways. I’m telling you-WHAT A WEEKEND! If you’ve been contemplating getting the entire family together, DO IT! Trust me, you’ll be so glad you did. 🙂

Have THE BEST day, Friends!

XO