Jeannette's 60th Birthday

The initial surprise!

Bryan, Jeannette, Tenlee & Tanner

Jana and Jeannette

Frank and Jeannette

Frank's Dad, Nile, Jeannette and her Dad, Elmer and Layne

Jeannette enjoying the evening on the deck after the initial surprise

Tanner and Zak, chilling after the surprise

Jana and Dave

Frank has been planning a surprise party for Jeannette's 60th birthday for the last two months. On Friday he actually pulled it off. All of her kids, grand kids and great grand kids were there. Bryan, Ali and Ryder drove down from Washington. Caleb, Tiffany and Bryler came up from Utah. And Dave and Jana flew in from Texas. We all got to their house before she got home from work. Frank kept telling her that he couldn't wait to give her birthday present to her. She is a lot like me and wanted to wait until her actual birthday, which was Monday. He told her he couldn't wait and when she got home he took her downstairs where we were all hiding. We all yelled, "Surprise!" She saw Bryan and Ali first and started bawling immediately. Then she saw Jana and really lost it. It was really neat to be part of such a great surprise. She told us that early that day she was really weepy because she missed all of her kids. Then to come home to see them all there just sealed the deal.

The next day we all got together and had family pictures taken down by the river. It was a beautiful day and I am really excited to see how they turned out. It is a real tribute to how much Jeannette's family loves her that they all pulled together despite many differences to give her this gift of time together. I really appreciate Jana for arranging for the picture. I know how stressful it can be to try and get that many people together at a certain time and place. But I thought it went really well.

I was especially grateful to Layne and the boys. They hate having their pictures taken. And the boys both had jobs in the harvest and had to take time off in order to be there. But I told them how important it was to me for them to be there and they did it. I think I used up every guilt trip in the book to make it happen. Now I'm afraid I might be in the position of owing them...nah they will never catch up.