Fifty Years: A time to celebrate.

Kind.  Supportive.  Humble.  Honest.  Inspiring. 

If I had only five words, these would be the ones that I would use to describe one of my favourite couples ever - my mother and father-in-law.

Last year, when we were sitting around talking about their upcoming anniversary, I asked them how they wanted to celebrate their 50 years together.  Whatever they wanted, I wanted to make happen.  Not surprisingly, what they wanted was simple.  They wanted their family together.  Their kids and their grandchildren.  In the same country.  On the same weekend.  

A few weeks ago, it happened.  Two parents.  Three kids.  Two spouses.  And two grandchildren.  All together at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

But it wasn't just simple.  It couldn't be.  These are two people who have spent their lives helping others and asking nothing for themselves. They deserved a weekend that they would talk about and remember for a long, long time.  

So that's what we gave them.

First there was the surprise limo ride to Niagara Falls.

(We were all supposed to meet outside the front door of our Inn to drive in to Niagara Falls to pick up Linda and Glenn from the train station.  I wish that I could have truly captured their surprise when they realized that the limo that had just pulled up, was for them.)

We spent an afternoon visiting wineries...

... stopping once to visit the grilled cheese food truck for lunch.

Later, there was another surprise when carriages showed up to take us for dinner.

And, of course, there was cake...

We wrapped up the weekend watching the Euro Cup in the company of a pub full of Brits.

Writing this post (yikes - some four weeks after it actually happened) has given me a chance to reflect.  At the time, I thought that we had pulled off the perfect weekend.  It was, as my father-in-law said, "a weekend of a lifetime".  Mission accomplished, I thought - we gave them a weekend that was completely for them.

Writing now, I realize that I was wrong.  They made us think that this was all about them.  We planned a weekend all about them.  But, along the way, it stopped being about them and they made it about us.  Which is what they wanted all along:  their kids together again.

Over the course of a weekend, their children reconnected.  Years of distance melted away and long after Mom and Dad turned in at night, we stayed up eating, drinking, and, Oh my God laughing!  And Sheldon and Juliana built some memories of their own with their aunt and uncles.

Thank you, Brian and Dawn.  For giving us the idea for your weekend, for letting me have some fun with the planning, for encouraging us to laugh our faces off, for letting us share Brian's first limo experience ever, for allowing us the opportunity to stroll down memory lane, for reminding us how fulfilling family can be, and for inspiring us all with your incredible partnership.

Fifty years.  Wow.

xoxo