tarin&nathan: 25 years!

This post should have been done a while ago, but better late than never I guess!

Back on November 29th, my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. It's kinda a big deal- that's one of the important ones; the silver anniversary- so we decided to do a few special things for them.

First, Nathan and I decided we would arrange a family photo shoot. My family hasn't had a real family picture since I was like 10- we have added 2 husbands and 2 babies since then, and obviously have all changed a lot! It was time for some new pics that my parents could hang on the wall. Here are a few for you to check out:

(my nieces are so stinkin' cute! it's ridiculous!!)

(you would never guess we are sisters- we look NOTHING alike. lol- but we love eachother to pieces. That's what really matters)

(I think my dad is really happy to have some other guys in the family now)

(This is Nathan's favorite)

Our photographers were fantastic! If you like the pics, check out their website. They did a great job- and their prices are pretty reasonable.

A few weeks later, we had a surprise anniversary party planned for them. I am super lame, so I didn't have a camera prepared to take pictures. Luckily my Aunt Lara was able to get a few on her phone. It was pretty awesome:

This was my anniversary present to my parents, aside from the photo- shoot. A BIG wall sign with a couple of the family photos. "All because two people fell in Love" I thought it turned out pretty well for having to throw it together last minute- dang work schedule!

A couple shots of the fabulous food line. We had a TON of stuff. 3 types of cupcakes, cream puffs, cheesecake bites, fruit cups, brownie buttons, fudge, cherry and apple turnovers, and one of my dad's favorites: creme brule!

We also had a hot chocolate bar with a few different flavors, marshmallows, wafer sticks, whipped cream, and chocolate dipped spoons!

We used as much silver as we could in the decorations- thank goodness it was around Christmas time- it made that part fairly easy. The hardest part about the decorations was finding old photos of my parents. I put random pictures of them from throughout their marriage all over the place. Hanging on walls and sitting on tables as part of the center pieces. All framed too!

We had been planning this for like a year, we tried really hard to keep it mostly a secret- especially from my mom. My dad helped us get a guest a list together (since we don't know all my parent's friends and their addresses and stuff.)

I think my mom was surprised. It was pretty funny when she walked in the door she looked so confused. She thought she was going out to dinner with a couple from my parents ward. They told her they had to stop at this church building to drop something off to one of the bishops. As they walked up my mom was like "This is the building we had our reception at 25 years ago." Then she walked in and saw me and Jess and Nathan- and was like "What are you doing you here?" She just looked so confused! It was funny! Then they walked in the cultural hall and everyone started clapping. It was cute.

There was a pretty good turn out- probably like 40-50 people? I am not sure, I was too busy chit chatting, and keeping the food full to count. There was family, friends from the past, friends from the ward, and even friends from my dad's work! It was pretty neat! They got lots of cool gifts too. =)