Saturday, our 50th Anniversary

 Saturday October 2 was our 50th anniversary!  It was a wonderful day from beginning to end. But before I share all those stories and pictures I’ll give you a glimpse into our wedding day in 1971. I was all about fall colors, and I tried to include every one of them in the dresses our attendants and family wore. 

In the collage below is our bridal party, which consisted of family members and our best friends Elaine and John, my family, and Dick’s family.  I did have some nieces and nephews that apparently were not at the wedding.  

So now back to 2021. We started the day with a trip to Multnomah Falls.  It was just as grand and majestic as I remembered from 2017.  It was a beautiful drive as the mist gave way to sunshine. 

So delighted to behold this glorious sight once again!

Our crew!

The Stauffer-Villani crew!

When we were finished hiking to the bridge and back again, we went into the beautiful lodge for our lunch reservation. 

A great Father-son pic!

Tasha was delighted with the Snap-On hat that Dick gave her. He had bought a new one in the gift shop. 

Walking back to the car I caught this adorable shot. 

Looking back. 

Back home, after some down time, we got started on dinner prep. Mike made a big pot of red sauce. 

I made meat balls while Jeremy and Tasha started the pasta dough. 

  

Dick and Brennan were porch buddies.  

Making the fettuccine noodles. 

Jeremy’s friend Megan and her foreign exchange student joined us for dinner. 

Megan brought us a scrumptious carrot cake for our anniversary. 

Megan’s fiancé Jordan and another friend Mark came over later. We had the greatest time hanging out on the porch around the fire pit. 

 This was a 50th anniversary to remember!

Our trip to Portland, day three

 Friday morning started with this cute little guy eating his breakfast and posing for a picture, after which Jeremy and I walked him to school.

After both kids were off to school, we four adults went on a “field trip.”  First of all we went to North Portland to pick up some tile for the kitchen, then we crossed the historic St. James Suspension Bridge.  The Gothic structures were so beautiful!

Then we headed south to wine country.  Our destination was a winery of which Jeremy and Mike are members.  What an absolutely gorgeous setting for lunch and wine tasting!  

We sat indoors for lunch, but the glass walls made it feel like we were outside.  I stepped outside to take some pictures, and if you look closely on this first one you can see the guys sitting at the table in the corner.  

We had such a good time. Dick and I know very little about wine and all that goes into making good wine, but we learned some really interesting things.  

From there we drove through some interesting “farm” country.  Look at this field of pumpkins!

Also a hazelnut orchard!  So that’s where my favorite candy comes from!

Back at home we had some time to relax on the porch till the kids came home from school. I enjoyed some scrumptious tomatoes fresh from the garden.  Watson liked napping behind Dick’s head. 

For dinner Tasha and I made sloppy Joe’s and creamy dill dip for veggies and chips.

After dinner Dick played with Brennan.  He absolutely loves Grandpa!

Jeremy enjoyed cleaning up the kitchen as more and more things were coming together.  Plywood is substituting for the counter tops until the real thing arrives.  There is still painting to do and other things. But having a functioning sink and dishwasher was a huge improvement that evening! And how about those light fixtures and that vaulted ceiling?

We finished the day with a raucous game of Sorry.  Brennan was just too funny as his true competitive nature was on full display.  We had so many good laughs.  Watson was Jeremy’s baby during the game, lol!!

There were some very sobering things in the midst of our good day.  My brother Dick and his wife Nancy have been battling COVID for two weeks.  Nancy has been very, very slowly getting better at home.  Dick, however, had to go to the hospital the other Saturday.  While we were driving to the vineyard on this lovely day I got a message that Dick was being moved to the ICU and would be put on a ventilator.  I burst into tears.  Please pray for my precious brother!  Two days later nothing has changed.  We are such a close sibling group and this is really, really hard.  

Also on that day I was keenly aware that it was the 12-year anniversary of our dad’s “home-going.”  What a bittersweet experience that was!

Our trip to Portland, Day Two

After a good night of sleep I was good to go on Thursday morning. It was a  really busy day around Jeremy and Mike’s house with several different contractors doing work in the kitchen.  Meanwhile Jeremy was trying to get his real work done while also keeping on top of the remodeling work being done.   

Jeremy and I made a trip to Home Depot, and possibly Dick and Mike did too.  My first project was starting to paint the trim around the doors and windows. 

Dick, with some help from Jeremy and Tasha, worked on a garage door issue. 

I just love their new front door.  Their previous one was solid, causing the front hallway to seem like a dark corridor.

Dick had some time to relax in the living room during the day. 

Tasha and I made a scrumptious dessert - Strawberry Blueberry Crumble. 

That evening their friends Christy and Mark came over for dinner - Indian take-out. Mark has been helping with their electrical work and had some things to finish that evening. We had so much fun together, but I never thought of taking a picture. 

While they were here we FaceTimed with Destiny. That was a lot of fun. Later Destiny sent me some cute pictures from their trip to the park. 

I miss this little guy! 

Trip to Portland, day one

 I am blogging from my phone and can’t get get my text bigger, so be sure to get out your reading glasses. 

Wednesday morning started VERY early. Our flight to Portland was leaving the local airport at 6:30, and of course I like to arrive WAY ahead, and I need plenty of time to get myself ready and final packing done. We tried to sneak out of the house as quietly as possible so we wouldn’t waken Destiny, Alex, and Elizer.  I think we were successful.  

Ready to go!

One big event that had happened the day before was Destiny’s successful trip to the DMV. She finally has a driver’s license!!!  We were ecstatic!!

On our flight from State College to Detroit we had beautiful views of the sunrise.  

It’s a good thing we did, because unbelievably on our next flight across the country, over four hours long, we had NO window!!  The same thing had happened to us in 2017!  We were really disappointed. I had originally picked our seats, but our flights were changed several times, so my chosen seats were gone. 

I had fun watching the progress of our flight, and I also watched a really good documentary, “I Am Not Your  Negro.”  Dick watched some shows. 

We had to rush from gate to gate in Seattle to make our next flight, but when we got there we found that they had not yet started boarding because they were waiting for the crew!

The flight from Seattle to Portland was very short and we had a fantastic view of Mount Hood above the clouds

. 

Jeremy met us at the airport.  

Mike had the guest room ready for us and looking so lovely, complete with fresh flowers!  

We enjoyed relaxing on the back porch until the kids came home from school. 

I made dinner - skillet shepherd’s pie.  But I never thought of taking pictures.  I went to bed soon after dinner  with the time change and my very early start, it had been a good, but loooong day!!