Golden Anniversary

My parents have been married for FIFTY YEARS!!!! I can't get over it and think it's just the most amazing accomplishment! They have been planning to have a party to celebrate the milestone for a long time, and I think we had an amazing time.

Their party was at the church hall where they had their wedding reception {and where Brent and I had our reception as well}. The day before the party, we went up to the hall to decorate.

My project was this photo wall. How neat is this to have her dress by it? Love!

The men having a refreshing drink after all the hard work was done!

Get ready for lots of pictures! We treated this like a wedding reception!

So much memorabilia from their wedding, I love that my mom saved all this.

The grands had to count who had the most pictures.

Trent had the most! Ha!

How cute is their cake?!

The OG Swopes

My uncle gave a toast before dinner. 

I wondered why they picked my mom's youngest brother...

until my sister told me it's because he is the only 

brother either of my parents have left. SOB

Lining up for the Grand March [a German dance]

A funny story is they can't remember what their first dance is from their reception. They had a band and the song they originally wanted, the band couldn't play. And now they can't remember which song the band played between the other 2 they suggested. So they danced to both at their anniversary party.

'First' dance

My parents are so cool that my friends wanted to come ha. And we decided to recreate a picture we took in Mexico in 2008. Except we couldn't remember the order we lined up in so we didn't get it quite right. We also joked we should have made Trent get in the picture since I was pregnant with him in Mexico. Missed opportunity! We said next time haha.

2025

 

2008

I am still a little tender in my heart after my mom's stroke, so this party was extra special to our little family!

Blame It On Mexico!

June was a busy month but oh so fun! As I was looking through pictures we packed in so much fun stuff. This will be a fun walk down memory lane. {grin}

On June 1, I went with a group of friends to see Katherine Center speak. I love all her books and think she is just precious. She lives in Texas and always comes to our little indy bookstore. 

Chatting with her after her talk, she is so sweet!

Then Brent and I took a quick 3-night trip to Mexico with his cousin Philip's family and some of their friends. We had a great time - spent lots of time in the resort pools, had some really great meals, and took a great trip out on a catamaran. 

Early flights = a quick nap in the hotel! Ha!

Nothing like family that are also great friends!

June included lots of Gus love OF COURSE. He also got really sick at the end of the month {some failed diet changes} and gave us a big scare. But nothing like a day at the vet getting IV fluids and meds and costing us $850 to make him all better. {grin}

I'm going to do a separate post for my parents' anniversary party which happened in the middle of June. We had such a blast and 50 years of marriage deserves its own shoutout!

The weekend after the party, we traveled to Houston for the annual LJA Stockholders dinner - this is always a highlight of the year because we always go with great friends! This year we didn't stay a second night but went swimming on Friday night at Derek and Dez's house {after a stop for bathing suits at Buc-ee's ha}. Some friends from high school were in town with their newest baby, so we wanted some snuggles with Mark Falcon!

My AmpedUp instructor friend, Lina, turned 50 in June, and we went to a fun place called Game On to play tv game shows with a group of friends! [Spoiler alert - we did this for my birthday too!] We had such a blast! Lina's husband made us a spring roll DIY bar, and we had a great time together. He got seriously injured a few days later in a freak accident, so I'm very glad we got to spend time with him too, and I'm so glad he is doing better now.

The whole crew

I love lazy mornings in the summer! Also love our new patio furniture.

Little Bit got her braces [Round 1] off at the end of June! She was so happy!

Sheesh, I am shocked at how much we did this month as I continue to type this all out! We also had our Girl Scout end-of-year reward trip. The girls voted to go to Kalahari. Paige is transferring into our troop, so she got to go too. She was SO thrilled - she was sobbing that she couldn't go and it worked out for her to go! Made my mama heart so full.

We rushed home from Kalahari to change clothes and turn around and go to the Dell Diamond - literally across the street from Kalahari - for Brent's summer event at the Round Rock Express baseball game.

Being silly with the fun glasses...and tired Drew! {grin}

And we closed out the month with Trent's birthday! He had a fun day of video games and lounging around enjoying a summer birthday. We went out to eat for burgers at a small, local restaurant with both sets of grandparents. [I got a picture of him but won't post it.] He also took 3 of his friends to Kalahari the next week. So wild that he was old enough for us to just drop him off and pick him up!

Since he doesn't like me posting pictures of him NOW...

let's look at baby Trent! GAAAAAH!