50th Anniversary Party Animals

Last weekend, the family gathered at a beloved vacation spot from our childhood to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  We arrived in dribs and drabs.  Matt, Dawon, HangSoon and HwaSoon drove up shortly after Mom and Dad.  James drove down from Atlanta where he's been visiting friends.  Z and I arrived mid-afternoon after a late start.  When we arrived, we checked into the hotel, then went to find Mom and Dad in Callaway Gardens.  We found them in the butterfly enclosure.  If you've never been to Callaway but plan to go sometime, make sure you visit the butterflies.  It's just beautiful!

We moved from place to place, walking and talking and enjoying each other's company.  James and Z found one of those coin-operated feeders and spent a little time feeding the Canadian geese, turtles and fish.

    There was a definite hierarchy there.  The geese were upper most.  They got most everything.  If you tossed directly to the turtles, they would get some, but only if it was right in front of their noses.  Otherwise, the fish would dart in there quick as silver and snatch the food up - sometimes right out of their mouths!

We would catch up with each other, then split apart again to come together again in some other place.

After visiting the gardens a bit, we went split up again.  Some went to the hotel to freshen up for dinner and take naps.  I took Z up the mountain.  He's never been to any mountains before, even the small ones like Pine Mountain.

To say he was blown away would have been an understatement.  He stood and looked... and didn't want to leave.  We had to though - we had a dinner to go to!!!

Andy and his fiance Angi made sure everyone had something to drink as we waited for our room to be ready.  They put us in a private room because there was a golf tournament going on over at the Gardens and they'd be drunk and in the main dining room.  The staff wanted to make sure we had a quiet and dignified celebration...

Z had hot apple cider as his drink...  Unfortunately, it got knocked over and into his lap right after we sat down in our private room.  He handled it like a champ though.  He cleaned up the best he could and didn't complain.

Jerry arrived a little late, but in good form.  As usual, we have several pictures of people taking pictures...  Count your lucky stars I'm only posting one!  Jerry was showing off his phone.  It's one of those Droid things - and when you drop it, it says "God Dammit!"  Pretty funny stuff.

I will spare you all the pictures of food.  It was plentiful and delicious.  I indulged myself in grilled salmon, which, if available, I will go for every single time.  I LOVE salmon!  Z got a Philly cheesesteak sandwich because he was curious and always wanted to try one.  He didn't want the mushrooms or peppers or onion and got teased about just wanting a meat sandwich, so he relented and had onion on it as well.  He loved it.

After all that food, there was cake!  The whole bottom tier of Matt and Dawon's wedding cake was leftover, so I re-iced the top and redecorated it so that it became the 50th Anniversary Cake!  It was delicious!

The celebrated couple was put together at the end of the table and given their gift. 

My new sister-in-law is quite talented in many ways - she drew this characture of my parents, which is pretty spot-on!  They loved it, of course!

Full and happy, we all got up and waddled to our respective rooms.  It seems the golfers were happy to see us go...  They complained about the noise we were making with all our laughing and merry-making!