I can't even fathom 40 years of marriage

Way back in May...May 23 to be exact, my parents celebrated forty years of marriage.

They are the most difficult people to do anything special for...because they somehow end up giving back to their kids tenfold whatever is given to them.

So, instead of something material, we decided to put together a book of memories for our parents. Since there are four of us kids, each of us wrote up the top ten most vivid memories...either of our childhood or adult life...with one or both of our parents...siblings present or not. Knowing that some of the memories--like time spent in Sunriver--would be duplicated, it was pretty fun seeing what everyone came up with.

Our parents put us first and continue to put us first even though all of us are grown and married. We did everything as a family, always. We sat down to dinner every night growing up, and when sports interfered, a hot dinner was always waiting in the oven. When we started fighting through dinner, as siblings and teenagers do, we began watching Jeopardy while eating, and I swear that's when my love of trivia began. My parents didn't leave us much--I can remember only one occurrence when we had a babysitter. I know there were a few more, but they just chose us over most everything else. Maybe to a fault sometimes. Nonetheless, they were and are shining examples of parents.

Thanks for sticking together through it all, Dad and Mom. We are beyond blessed. Happy happy anniversary, again...just a few months late.

Um. I don't know why I can't rotate this photo. Christmas cookie decorating. If you can see my face, I'm super stoked to be eating frosting!

And I can't rotate this one either. Ugh. This was B.K. (Before Kate)...Joe and Elizabeth's birthday at Farrell's.