Champaign, Illinois, USA ... Aug 8 - 10, 2008

My parents had been in St. Louis at the temple and were on their way back, to arrive around 9:00 in Champaign. All of my sisters and their families and my grandpa all met at my parents' house to wait for them to arrive. We huddled in their bedroom, 24 of us (William and Julia were keeping watch, since my parents knew that they would be there), waiting for them to come in. When they came home Julia told my parents that their two kids were watching a movie in their bedroom, so they should go in and say "hello". When they opened the door they were obviously tremendously surprised to see all of us together (or they are very good actors) as we wished them a Happy 40th wedding anniversary. We had come from all over...Wisconsin, Utah, Maryland, Minneapolis, and Budapest.

We visited together that evening before calling it a night. The girls were awake by 3AM again, thank goodness once again for ipods! We waited around for everyone else to wake up before leaving all the grandkids with my parents for their traditional grandkids breakfast, while the parents all went out for breakfast. Breakfast in the US, by the way, is 100 times better than European breakfasts. Waffles, pancakes, omelettes, COLD milk, etc. Bread with jam is good, but only so much of it. Cereal is pretty crappy in Europe (seems everything is chocolate something) and the milk sits out and is always warm. Anyway...

We ate, did some shopping, ate Monicals Pizza for lunch (we have a list of restaurants we have to hit every time we are back in the US ... Jimmy Johns, Monicals, Chinese wherever, Cracker Barrel, etc.), then got ready for the surprise anniversary party. We invited my parents' closest friends plus my Aunt Joanne came from Utah and my Uncle Jubel from Kentucky (my dad's brother and sister). It was great to see them surprised yet again as they walked into the ballroom of the hotel we catered the event at. Kendra had prepared a slide show, plus my grandpa said some kind words. Ashley asked if she could go to sleep as soon as it started. We just laid her down on the floor in the corner and she was asleep as soon as she laid down. Katie lasted just a few minutes longer before going to sleep in our arms. So they basically missed the whole thing, but understandably so.

The whole event turned out very nice and my parents were overwhelmed and grateful.

PS: The above picture is Ryan with his cousin Matthew who is six weeks older than Ryan...although Ryan looks six MONTHS older than HIM!