my dad's 80th birthday bash

This photo was supposed to be about halfway thru this blog entry, but somehow it got missed and I wasn't going to rearrange everything, so it will just have to be first! This is my Mom & Dad with all their grandchildren and great-grandchildren that were able to come to the party.

Last Thursday we celebrated my Dad's birthday with a little party and family gathering! Things started off with everyone over 12 attending the Bountiful Temple -- the teenagers doing baptisms and the adults doing a regular session. It was really nice to be able to do that as a family and really memorable spiritual experience. Then we got the "party" started! Since my house isn't big enough to host 30 people for dinner, I made arrangements for us to eat at the church. We had 7ft. of party sub sandwichs, pasta salad, green salad, flag jello, chips, lemonade, and vanilla ice cream & carrot cake. Yummy! Here's a picture of my dad with his cake -- it says "Happy 80th Birthday", but you can't see it because it was written in white frosting. After eating, it was present opening time, of course. All Dad's gifts had to do with 80. Here's a general idea of what is sitting on that table. 80 mini candy bars, 80 dollar store cookies, 80 bite-size Snickers, an 80 page notebook, 80 toothpicks, 80 good things about Dad book, 80 Arizona quarters, 80 orange sticks, and cards with happy birthday wishes.
This is a picture of my parents with their 4 children and spouses.
Here is my Mom & Dad with Josh & Nicola -- they had a late flight and missed the birthday dinner, but joined us for the sleepover and were able to spend some time on July 4th with Mom & Dad at temple square.

Here is my Mom & Dad with Alexa -- #5 great grandchild. I loved this picture because everyone is smiling real genuine smiles (my mom is terrible about smiling for the camera)
After dinner, presents, and cake, we all headed back to our house to visit, play, and set off some fireworks. Michelle & Andy's family and Brady & Randi's family headed to their own homes for the night while the rest of us stayed here. I think we had about 18 people inside the house sleeping and 5 boys outside in tents!

We all got up bright and early on the 4th of July and headed to the city offices to run or walk the Freedom 5k. GayLynn & David and Josh & Nicola stayed here at the house to take care of Matthew for us -- and get some more rest! Mark J. was a trooper and went with us to the run, but instead of running, he entertained Jacob while he waited for his 1/4 mile kid race. Everyone finished and my Mom won her age division -- She got a free car wash, a free pizza, and 4 free tacos!! Wahoo!

We had breakfast at the city park and then headed to our house to get ready to go to Lagoon. Mom & Dad, GayLynn & David, and Josh & Nicola decided to go to temple square instead, and had a wonderful time there. John & Karen had to get back home to work, so we sent them off to Idaho. Brady, Randi, & Alexa met us at Lagoon and we all had a fabulous and tiring day riding the rides.

We had a great time together as a family and really missed seeing those who weren't able to come. Those who we missed seeing were: Mike (he's on a missison in Argentina), Randy, Robert, Chris & Alisa and their boys.