50 Years

I have been thinking about this blog post a lot, trying to come up with something profound. After all, it isn't every day a couple can say they have been married (to each other) for fifty years. I do know at age 20 I was not thinking about 50 years down the road. Good grief...we'd be OLD if we reached a 50th anniversary!

My brothers and I hosted a 25th wedding anniversary open house for my parents. Curt and I had been married less than 5 years then. Not that I thought of my parents as old at that time, but I just couldn't imagine a 25 year marriage. Then 25 years later, we were able to host a 50th anniversary open house for them. How fortunate my brothers and I were to have both parents, in good health, for 50 years. I am so glad we had that celebration for their friends and family as Dad did not live long enough to celebrate a 55th wedding anniversary.

The only anniversary Curt and I celebrated with family and friends was our 40th. We were retired and I decided if we were both above ground, we'd invite family and friends for a low-key celebration in our garage. We served walking tacos to those who stopped by to wish us well. We were proud to share our first grandchild with everyone. Neither Curt nor I were certain we'd be around for a 50th, so #40 was important. (Yes, all the anniversaries are important, but we seem to take many of them for granted.) 40th Anniversary here.

We made some big plans for #50. We planned to travel to Iceland in April with long-time friends who celebrated their 50th the day before our 50th. But, the coronavirus took care of the trip to Iceland. We also planned to take our family (kids and grands) to Mexico for a week later this year. That trip is still undetermined. We had a month-long camping trip planned for August. That adventure has been moved to 2021.

 Last year at this time, it seemed very important to do something big, something special, something different to celebrate 50 years of being together. By the end of March and into April of this year, surviving a pandemic has taken precedence over a 50th anniversary celebration. Instead of one BIG celebration, we had five low-key celebrations.

June 5th

Very good friends in Sioux Falls invited us to their place for dinner and cake for celebration #1.

June 6th

Saturday morning of our anniversary day, my brother and his wife brought breakfast and this beautiful orchid to start our big day, celebration #2.

flowers from son & family

June 6th

We dressed up and went to dinner IN a restaurant that evening and had a wonderful meal with masked wait staff and appropriate social distancing, celebration #3.

Celebration #4 has no photos but was shared with the long-time friends who were our Iceland travel companions. The four of us celebrated our 25th anniversaries in Hawaii. For this one, we had dinner together in Watertown. No masked wait staff, and before we left, the social distancing was not. Dinner was good and the visit with our 50th friends was extra special.

Celebration #5 happened this past weekend. OFD was able to come from Minneapolis and OFS and DIL and grands were free to spend the weekend together at our place.

enjoying mint mojitos on the deck

made by our personal bartender

virgin mojitos

the family on June 13th

the grands

the kids

another cake

June 13th

It was great to have the family here for the weekend. We had carry-out dinner, time for visiting and playing games. We watched the fireflies and the stars once it got dark. Everyone stayed at our place overnight and after brunch Sunday morning and a few more games of Farkle, they all went home. Low-key, unplanned, but a perfect way to celebrate 50 years of marriage.