This is what Happily Ever After looks like...

Alternative title: Best weekend ever!

This weekend, we got to honor two of my very favorite people ever, my parents. The occasion? Their 50th wedding anniversary. The guest list? A boatload of people. (Literally!)

The party started in San Diego on Friday night. Mark and I arrived just in time to join my parents and some of their friends Diana and John from Arkansas for dinner. Diana and my mom taught at the same school, and Diana had gone to the wedding. She was a riot!

Our family friend, Torsten, and his young family also arrived that night, all the way from Germany. We sat outside, catching up, our kids sipping hot cocoa, even though it was almost 80 degrees that night.

My brother Scott and his wife Mary were also in the hotel somewhere. I didn't see them, but their children attacked us at the table. They were all staying overnight at the hotel; the girls with their Grandma from Santa Maria, and Grant with Mark and I. Both Mark and Grant sighed, "Awwwww!" when I suggested they could share a bed. Grant informed me that you could order a bed to the room. He ran off to the front desk to see how much it cost. He returned a few minutes later, and told me it was only $10. When I said we didn't really need it, he said, "But I already ordered it."

"How?" I asked. "You don't even know what room I'm in!"

"231," he answered. And sure enough, when we opened the door, there was an extra bed!

"Way to take care of it, Grant," I told him. The bed stayed, and the boys were both thrilled.

By Saturday morning, the arrivals were in full swing. My brother Tim and his family arrived, followed by my aunt, uncle and his girlfriend Denise. As we were heading out for lunch, my brother Brad and his girlfriend, Shanda, arrived. It seemed like no matter where you went in the hotel, you ran in to a relative or friend.

Tim and Kim ordered lunch by the pool. Since Mark wanted to stay with his cousins, I gave him a room key and strict orders to get some lunch. Mark really enjoyed his new freedom--throughout the day, I found him buying drinks and snacks at the gift shop, or lounging in the room watching TV. 

I returned from lunch to find empty dishes outside my door. A sheepish Mark admitted that yes, he did order himself room service, but in his defense, he also bought Grant some snacks as well. I don't know what was worse, an 8-year-old ordering beds, a 12-year-old buying...well, everything!...or the hotel letting the kids charge whatever they wanted. (I realized later, as I was ranting about all this that maybe...perhaps...ok, yes, for sure, I should have kept a little tighter control on the key cards!)

Anyway, more friends and family arrived, including our friend Brian and his VERY pregnant wife. (Colleen was actually due that day!) Since they weren't going on the boat, it was fun to see them for a while.

More family arrived, including Shanda's parents, who Tim heralded as "Mr. and Mrs. Shanda." I just love them--they are so sweet, normal, and down-to-earth. So excited the next big family party will include them as well, and cement our family connection. ;-)

At 4:45, everybody met up in the lobby, where Tim was passing out champagne, and I was furiously trying to photograph all the families.



Greg and Denise, so cute!



Me and the girls

I didn't get them all, because our chariot arrived, in the form of a giant bus. We loaded up the hotel guests--all 50 of them--and headed over to our party location--a yacht my parents had chartered for the evening.

My parents had only informed the hotel guests about the bus, so the guests waiting by the boat were getting a little anxious that no one else was there. Our friend Steve Schanes thought maybe we were arriving in a limo, when suddenly, our giant bus pulled up, and the family started pouring out. It was hilarious!

The kids all ran ahead so they could board first. I had my camera out, ready to photograph my parents boarding their anniversary cruise together.

As I snapped their photo, I turned to see this motley crew hanging out the windows, yelling out that they were enjoying their champagne very much. (It was really sparkling apple cider.) Those kids crack me up!

As soon as we were onboard, the boat took off. It was still a bit crazy--my mom was passing out name tags, friends we hadn't seen yet were greeting us, waiters were passing out champagne, and the boat staff was setting up the cake. In the midst of it all, my sis-in-law Kim ran by and yelled, "Is this the Titanic?" Mark assured me we couldn't get hypothermia in the warm California waters.

Yes, these are the grown-ups. Scary!



We cruised around San Diego bay for the next four hours. My parents seriously could not have picked a better night to celebrate--the weather was warm, and the moon was a full, harvest moon. (My mom LOOOOOOVES the full moon so much, Mark asked if she'd intentionally picked this date because it was so full. Nope, serendipity!)

 

The happiest couple in the room (beside my parents!)

 

 

That's a lotta Landas

As the sun set, and the sky turned beautiful shades of blue and purple. We sat down to dinner, and I giggled as I watched the kids (and all my brothers) completely bypass the vegetables and head straight to the meat. 

Somehow, I was wandering around downstairs and almost completely missed my parents cutting the gorgeous cake. Luckily, Mark leaped into action, and though he forgot to turn on the flash, he captured some pictures of them. 

The kids were crowded around the table, drooling. They had a long wait, as they completely ignored the first two layers (champagne and raspberry), desperately waiting for the chocolate mousse layer.

After dinner came the toasts. Although my parents think we're funny, they apparently did not like the roast we gave them at their 40th anniversary party. This year, they requested real toasts instead of a roast, and my mom threatened us if we weren't nice.

Tim was the first kid up to bat, and he started off very nicely. He talked about how when you're a kid, you think your parents are superheroes who can do no wrong. He said that changed when we became teenagers, and convinced ourselves they didn't know ANYTHING. Tim momentarily lapsed into roast mode, saying that if he really wanted to go there, they were pretty easy targets. He was cracking up the whole boat by prefacing each comment with, "I don't want to make fun of them because they're too old for technology, but let's just say that none of their kids has their email address!"

But in the end, he came around to nice again, and ended by saying, we'd come full circle, and that now, he realized once again that my parents were indeed superheroes. I thought I might burst into tears right there, it was so sweet!

Brad, aka Smed, was up next, and his toast was exactly what you'd expect--goofy, funny, rambling, and silly. He did point out what wonderful role models my parents were, and how hard he was trying to raise his son the same way. It was also very touching--Smed's in such a good, happy place in his life, and it really showed.

I was up next. I'm a nervous speaker, and I was worried I'd forget everything I wanted to say, so I wrote my toast out beforehand. As I looked into the sea of faces staring back at me, I realized that was a good idea. I cleared my throat, willed my voice to be steady and calm, and started.

"I'm a better writer than I am a speaker," I told the crowd. "So I'm just going to read my speech."

I took a deep breath and read directly from my paper...

"Hi, I'm Heather--"

And the room erupted in laughter. For a minute I was confused, because that wasn't the funny part, and I wasn't sure why they were laughing yet. Then I realized that duh, I was related to 90% of the room, and the other 10% had known me since I was born. Though it seemed casual and conversational when I wrote it, it did sound ridiculous when I read it!

But it did help calm my nerves. I instantly knew this stupid introduction would live on in Dinsdale history for the rest of my life, and I just smiled. It could be worse.

I made it through my toast, and passed the limelight over to my brother Scott. He gave an awesome speech about how marriage is not just a success for two people, but for their whole support group. He talked about how many people had supported my parents over the years, and how that's what he looks for as well. He even grinned and said ominously, "We're Dinsdales...once we're your friends, you can never get rid of us!" It was very funny, and heartfelt.

(Thank you to everyone who sat and let us ramble on about how fantastic our parents are...I know you agree, but thank for sitting through it all!)

We wrapped up all the talking, and my mom decreed it time to dance. She ordered everyone downstairs to dance.

And who doesn't do what my mom says? We filled the tiny dance floor up in no time, except for the poor Roppe's, who were too tall to fit down there! We danced ourselves silly to all my parents' favorite songs--"YMCA," "We are Family," the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, even the Electric Slide (which most of us had forgotten how to do). The kids even formed a conga line and danced off around the boat. They also stole my camera and took lots of funny candid shots!

The DJ played my favorite, "I Will Survive," and I did my infamous dance. I didn't know my niece Gabi knew every word, and she's got an attitude, so we engaged in a dance/sing off. It was AWESOME!!!

The kids and grandkids danced to every song. Suddenly, "I've Got Friends in Low Places" came on. The adults went nuts, but the kids just froze. They didn't know what to do, and literally just stood there on the dance floor.

But then Mary saved the day. She requested "What Makes You Beautiful" by Nathalie's crush, boy band One Direction. This time the opposite happened--the kids all exploded in to song, along with their parents. The rest of the adults looked confused, and I heard a couple say, "I've never heard this song before!" You could tell which people had teen or pre-teen kids. :-)

My parents got a slow song in there, and danced across the floor, like the king and queen. They were so happy, as was the whole room, which was literally surrounded in love. We just smiled, watching them, as the DJ told us, "This is the last song."

I thought he was kidding, but Monica said, "No, look, we just docked!" I couldn't believe it. The four hours just flew by!

The tired group loaded back up on the bus and returned to the hotel. The kids went to bed, and the adults went down to the pool to listen to Crosby, Stills and Nash, who were playing at the hotel next door. When they closed down, we grabbed a table, unwilling to end the amazing night.

Even my parents, who are usually in bed by 9, stayed up. We ordered drinks, drank half of them, and then finally called it a night at 12, when the next day began.

I may not have been at my parents' first wedding reception, but I was at the 50th, and it's a night I will always remember.