Pulling Off The Party Of The Century

This last week has been absolutely crazy. About three months ago, Shannon decided that with her grandmother, Maxine Layton, turning 83 this year, it was time to throw a big party. We all look forward to those major milestones of 16, 21, 30, 40, 50 and 83. Right? I just kid. Shannon's rationale was that when you start putting an 8 at the beginning of your age each year, you better celebrate now regardless of how healthy one may be, because there is no guarantee for the future. So, she sent out the word and got all of her grandmother's descendents to commit and the date was set for April 3, 2009 in Thatcher, AZ. The truly amazing thing about this party was she managed to get 34 people here from all over the country (southwest part anyway) and still keep it a secret from Maxine. But before we get to the party, let us digress:

This is the face of surprise when Maxine arrived for her party.

The week leading up to this has been exactly what one would hope for if you are planning a major social event. Sunday started with Kate puking twice and blowing out not one, not two, but 5 diapers with nasty diarrhea. I stayed home with her and we prayed she would get over it. She did, eventually. By Wednesday, she was feeling better. However, in that time, both Shannon and I had come down with nasty throat and ear infections. Good times. Add to that a nice middle of the night puking from Logan and we were in great shape to host 30 people.

But it all worked out by Friday, and the party looked great. Maxine showed up and was completely surprised and very shocked. She cried, we cried (I didn't cry. I never cry. I don't care what Danica thinks she saw during Elder Holland's talk today.) and we had a fantastic evening. Everyone remarked yet again how amazing Maxine is at 83. I think she has more energy and get up and go than I do. Of course even she is no match energy wise for her new 93 year old boyfriend, who unfortunately was on a cruise with his family and couldn't make the party. To wrap things up, we watched a video of pictures and Maxine telling her life story in her own words. It was a fantastic evening.


That would be Abby under all that toilet paper during the toilet paper mummy game. I'm not sure the title gets the essence of the game.

The next day while the family basically hung out and went to lunch at La Casita, Lamar and I braved the winds and played in the hospital's fund raising golf tournament. There is nothing like playing golf in 30-40 mph wind gusts...all day long...it never let up...in fact...it got worse the longer we went. Highlights from the day included:

Reuniting with an old flame. My 3 wood and I had not been on speaking terms for a couple of years. But we got together again and we wondered how we ever let things get so wrong.

Free Soda. It wasn't Dr. Pepper, but it was soda. Lamar was in seventh heaven because the Pepsi was free and they kept it flowing.

Arnold's joke in the restroom. I won't repeat it, but I know Lamar will get a good chuckle remembering it as he chuckled about it all weekend.

Free Brawts for Lamar and I. Shannon would consider this a low light, but oh well. (This actually led to a conversation later at the house on foods that Shannon thinks are disgusting.)

Lamar draining a 20 foot putt on the last hole to win between the two groups who were playing together. Ok, officially we tied, but they bought a mulligan and used it to take off one stroke. We went mulligan free and still pulled out the tie. So we win. This goes back to basic tie rules as established during the UofA streak in football over ASU when they won 9 consecutive years. They actually tied in one of those games, but in that game, ASU just needed to punt and they would win. But instead, the punter muffed the snap and UofA scored and tied the game. Sorry, that is a UofA win, just like our golf round.

Lamar between shots and blinding wind gusts. When are they going to move here so we could play golf and have fun any time we want? I realize it is a rhetorical question, but I ask it nonetheless.

That night, after the priesthood session, we hung out and enjoyed each other's company and then Shannon and I stayed up until 1:30 with Cody and Danica just visiting. My goodness how we miss them.

The family all left today and we are back to normal life tomorrow. But WOW, what a weekend and congrats to my wife for pulling off an amazing surprise party.