Foiled by the snow!

My parents recently celebrated their 4oth Wedding Anniversary! That is a pretty impressive milestone and one that deserved celebrating. My sister and I have been planning a few surprises since Nov. You see my folks got married on New Years Day 1970 and we wanted to throw them a party. Well we all know how crazy the holidays are and adding one more party to the mix would just not make for a very successful event. So we decided to plan the party for the end of Jan. In the mean time we didn't want them to think we weren't doing anything for their anniversary so we presented them with a weekend get-a-way to Charlottesville, VA. They love History and was very excited to be going away together for the first time in years!

We planned out the menu, ordered the cake, brought the decorations with us and had 50people RSVP. Our excuse to our parents on why we were all coming home was that we wanted to spend Sat. at IKEA and since they only live about an hour from there we would come the evening before and spend the night with them. They had no clue we were up to anything except a day of shopping!

A few days before we left we heard that the DC area would be getting a light dusting of snow. This isn't a big deal because, unlike VA Beach, they have the equipment and salt needed to clear the streets. Well that was not the case! It started snowing sometime early Sat. morning and continued through the evening. The one inch turned into about 6-8 inches.

Bethany and I tried to run out to Costco to pick up the cake and other food when we got stuck on the interstate for over an hour and a half. At this point the calls began to come in. Looked like no one was going to make it the party due to the weather. We finally got off the closest exit and made it to a local grocery store to pick up some things but never did make it to Costco for the cake. We barely made it home before my parents came back from their lunch with friends Dan and Claudette (major kudos to Dan and Claudette for risking their lives to meet my folks for lunch to get them out of the house for a few hours.)

Needless to say...they were surprised and thrilled even though the only ones in attendance were their kids and a handful of family brave enough to brave the snow, we had a great time. They even renewed their vows thanks to Andy.

Gracie and her cousin Rachel playing


Uncle Ron and Reese laughing together



The result of their 40 years of love..hahahah



all partied out...




Grace got to play for the first time in the snow and had a blast.