Surprise 60th Birthday Party

On Sunday August 11th we had arranged with Kevin, Tamara, Sage, Conrad, Jeff, Lindsay, Zachary and Oliver to meet in Merritt for a nice quiet Family Picnic as a celebration for my 60th Birthday on that day and Brenda’s upcoming 60th Birthday on September 3rd.

Well unknown to us, behind the scenes and in cahoots with our kids, everyone was busy  organizing and arranging a surprise birthday party that was much bigger and certainly included a lot more family. We sort of thought something “was afoot” when I didn’t receive a Happy Birthday phone call from my sister Donna. She hasn’t missed calling me on the morning of my birthday for at least the last 10 years……. so that was the first clue. The second clue was when Dean and Judy with GGPa and GGMa passed us on the highway headed down to Merritt 🙂

Around 12:30 we met the group from Princeton and a few minutes later the Kelowna gang arrived and as we were all saying our hellos all of sudden a cavalcade of vehicles started to pull into the parking lot at Merritt’s Rotary Park.

In addition to our immediate family there was Donna and Bob, Maureen and Duane, Lynda, George, Roxanne, Jennifer, Tricia, Johnny, Lynette, Arjun, Mike, Rose, Sarah, Mitchell, Dean, Judy, GGPa and GGMa, Brent, Karen and Colin…….. phew… what a gang!

It was so great to see so much of the family and extended family together. As with any family gathering the food started appearing from coolers, and boxes, a serving tent was set-up and there was enough grub to feed a military campaign for the next month. Everything was delicious and our Daughter-in-law Tamara made a special 60th Birthday Cake out of Cupcakes…. Yummy!

After lunch there was a Pinata that Sage, Conrad and I had trouble opening with the stick, but in the end we got it and got lots of Candy.Then it was time for lots of visiting, lots of laughs and lots of Hugs. What a great family 🙂

There was also a lot of pictures taken by everyone…… especially the two photog’s in this picture; the one in the pink and the one in black. All of the pictures that are used in this Blog were courtesy of our niece Tricia. Check out her photo site http://mercuriphotography.smugmug.com/

By early afternoon it was time for everyone to say goodbye and for us to head off on our trip down to Washington State and over to Whidbey Island.

It was a great day and we are blessed.

Thanks to everyone in the family that made this day possible.