CHAR'S SURPRISE 75

Char's children spent over 6 months planning a surprise party for her 75th birthday. Mom's birthday is June 28th and we held the party on Saturday, June 26th. We wanted to invite all the people in her life, that she loves, to share in her celebration. (Unfortunately, we did leave some out that we were unaware of) We had help from mom's temple friends, ward friends, neighbors, DUP friends, and relatives in collecting names and addresses for our invitations. Mindy came up with the idea of having Devin tell mom that he had a media event at the Hooper Park because of a monument that he is placing there. He told her that Eileen had to work and so he would appreciate her coming with him. We all gathered at the Hooper Park pavilion to set up and be ready to jump out and surprise mom. Many of her friends arrived early to join in the surprise. We all hid behind the pavilion building as we saw Devin driving mom down the street to the park.

This is when mom sees and hears us all jump out from behind the building and shout, "Surprise" "Happy Birthday". We all wondered if the people receiving over 140 invitations that were sent out would keep our surprise a secret. Only one person let a little of the cat out of the bag, but not enough for mom to figure that there was a party for her. Thank goodness!

Of course she had to cry some tears of surprise and happiness.

Some of mom's good and loyal friends from her temple group

(Left to right) The Morrelli's, The Nuzman's, The Stoddard's, Sister Avis, and The Nelson's

Everyone wanted to chat with the birthday girl

Mom and the DUP ladies

(Left to right) Myrtle Maathuis, Doris Wright, Marilyn Garner

More of mom's temple group friends

(Left to Right) Rita Christensen, LuJean Peters, Colleen Knowles

Mom with Brother and Sister Blaylock---he is the best home teacher ever and our family appreciates all he does for our mother

The Twitchell's with mom---Afton is mom's 1st cousin

The Lang's

The Hardy's

Brother and Sister Hadley --good friends from the temple. Brother Hadley was the officiator that sealed Brady and Laurel in the Ogden Temple

The Naisbitt/Henderson families (Emily Herbert's family)

were all wonderful to support mom and come to the party

(Left to right) Carolynn Henderson, Callee and Colton Chambers, Gwen, Braxton, Sue Naisbitt, Emily, Rose Chambers, Nan Hodge, Byron Naisbitt

Sister Morrelli framed mom's party invitation for her

Nick Macintosh, Lorin's life-long friend, came to give birthday wishes

Devin and mom could share a laugh about the white lie to get her to HER SURPRISE PARTY

Jeanene and Johnny

Johnny flew in from a business trip in Quebec to be at the party

Megan flew in from Los Angeles Saturday morning and had all kinds of troubles when she arrived. Megan's bag didn't arrive on her plane. She was wearing a sweat suit and flip flops and so she had a few heated words for the Delta lost baggage worker. The worker threatened Megan that she was going to be escorted out of the airport by security. This gives you a clue as to how the redhead was feeling about her lost luggage. Kenzie had driven to Salt Lake to pick up Megan and so Kenzie had to turn around and drive back to Hooper. Megan rented a car, drove to Gateway, bought a hat, drove back to the airport, waited for her luggage to arrive on a different plane, drove to Mindy's house, changed her clothes and freshened up, and then came to the park. Needless to say, mom was very surprised to see her oldest grandchild. Megan had called Mom that morning while waiting for the luggage and making her grandma think she was driving home from her hospital rounds in Los Angeles. We all told a few white lies that we normally never do. None of us are good liars or good at keeping secrets from our dear mom and grandma.

Brady and Laurel had been in Las Vegas to see Garth Brooks. They tricked grandma into thinking they would try to be back by Sunday afternoon for her birthday party at Lorin's house. (This was the birthday party that we told mom we were supposedly having in her honor along with Jocelyn.) Brady and Laurel left Nevada early so they could be at the surprise party to honor mom.

Eileen worked hard to get things ready at the park

Mom's niece, Marlene and her daughter, Lindsay, drove down from Randolph for the party

Emily and her family joined the party from Idaho Falls

Grandpa John spent much of the afternoon cuddling Creed

Lorin is such a good brother and definitely a "MOMMY'S BOY"

The three lovely Maughan girls were happy and full of fun

Three of four sisters--where is Jocelyn?

Two cousins and friends

Crew had so much fun on the playground at the park that he wouldn't even take time for a cookie and Crew is the king of sweets!

Brady entertained the kids with swinging

Megan was happy that Creed took a little nap in her arms so she could hold him

Father and Son....brings tears to my eyes

Of course, in hindsight, there are things I wish we would have done differently. But overall, I know that we children were happy to honor our MOST WONDERFUL MOTHER! We think mom enjoyed the party very much and was touched to see how many other people love her too.