Ralph and Carolyn's 50th

Ralph and Carolyn celebrate 50 years!

Ralph shows his surprise during his grand entrance


Carolyn was also very surprised

On December 29 2009, we celebrated Ralph and Carolyn's 50'th anniversary. With all of our old friends and extended family so far away, I was afraid it would just be my brother Donald and myself taking them out to dinner. With them living about 6 hours away down in Coos Bay OR and me up in Olympia WA, I hadn't had a chance to meet many of their local friends.

They have lived there for over 20 years now and have developed a large network of friends. I was able to get in touch with one of their dear friends Janice. She was gracious enough to make arrangements for a place to meet and bring some beautiful flowers and a cake. She went to a lot of effort to invite as many of their local friends as possible. We had a great turnout, with about 30 people being able to attend.

We had kept it a secret, so they were both surprised when our quiet family dinner turned out to be bit more.

My brother Donald and his new wife Pam found a beautiful celebration clock. It has a plaque on the front with Ralph and Carolyn's names, and one on the back with our names.

From left to right: Jeff, Don, Ralph and Carolyn

The video is not very good, but you can at least hear Ralph tell the story of their first date those many years ago...

We had our gathering at a nice Mexican restaurant. Near the end of the meal the crew came out with these "Happy Anniversary" sombreros and sang a festive song for the happy couple.