The Lee Family: Celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Anniversary!

This weekend we celebrated Grandpa and Grandma's 50th wedding anniversary! Over the past few months, CK has done an amazing job pulling together this weekend that included a group of family and friends that numbered around 150, a fantastic catering job by Celebrations Catering out of Gainesville, and a great afternoon spent celebrating CK Sr. and Connie in the hanger, that certainly didn't look like the airplane hanger we know! CK also designed, addressed and sent out all of the party invitations, collected all of the RSVPs and followed up with those who hadn't responded yet. One of the crowning achievements though was the photo album he pulled together that spanned the past 50 years from their wedding, the arrival of CK Jr, Cynthia's birth and many many years of memories since then, especially with grandkids in the past ten years. It really was a fabulous photo album and it took a lot of work on his part scanning, uploading the photos and then creating a photo album through Shutterfly. It really turned out to be a great event and it seemed like CK and Connie had a great time.

CK flew out to Florida early Thursday morning to help set up and clean up the hanger and the girls and I flew commercially to Tampa on Friday morning and arrived around 3pm at Grandpa and Grandma's. Both girls were excited to see their grandparents and cousins and miss a day of school, although Sofia was really upset when she found out that she would need to wake up at the same time as a regular school day. On Friday morning, we dropped Buddy off at Stacy's house and Mitzi drove us to the airport at 7:30am. The flight to Tampa went smoothly and the 2.5 hours really went quickly. Olivia, who had a slight fever that morning and is really congested, read #5 of the Magic Tree House series in about 45 minutes and then wanted to curl up and sleep. She put her head in my lap, wrapped her blue blanket around herself and feel asleep for the rest of the flight. Meanwhile, Sofia read her library book about storming a kingdom and taking it over.

We grabbed our rental car and drove the 2 hours to the farm and the girls read the whole way. Jackson flew down with Cynthia, so he was there and the girls were so excited to get some one-on-one time with him. Sofia drove Olivia and Jackson around the farm on the gator for the rest of the afternoon, while we tried to decorate the hanger. Poor CK had to climb an ancient wood ladder that was super rickety and tape decorations to the main I-beam. It's a miracle he didn't fall and break his neck. Jay, Chandler and Jillian arrived around 10pm Friday night and Olivia was already asleep in the office with Jackson.

The day of the party started out cloudy and cooler than we expected. The catering company arrived at 9am and set up all the tables, chairs, laid out all the linens and got all the food and drinks ready. They did an amazing job and the hanger was soon looking amazing! They set out the hydrangea centerpieces on each of the tables and tied the 25 balloons on chairs. It just looked great. At 11am friends and family started to arrive for the party and soon the hanger area was full of family and friends! The food was served around noon and it was all delicious! CK ordered pulled pork, ribs, and grilled chicken with green beans, black eyed peas, corn bread, and fried okra. It was all so good. After lunch, it was time to cut the cake and CK gave a toast to his parents before they thanked everyone for coming and celebrating the day with them and then they cut the cake! It was such a sweet moment and it's so exciting to see them celebrate 50 years of marriage.

Other than the cake cutting, all the grandkids spent their time on the hay bales that are behind the other house. Apparently they made forts and made up some huge story line (of course). Sofia had a great time with Regan, a 2nd cousin who she's never met. Regan is 9 and she and Sofia had a fantastic time playing together. At 4pm, when most had said their goodbyes, CK Sr. cranked up the Cub and flew it over his neighbor's house to honor Leslie, who recently passed away. Her husband, Charlie, held a memorial service at their back pasture at 4pm and requested he fly over if he could. CK Sr. has a hard time getting in and out of the Cub due to his back, so it was awesome to see him fly over the memorial service for Charlie. Leslie was such a great woman and it's still so hard to believe she's gone. After everyone left, we headed to the house with Aunt Lyla, Ruel, Huel and 18-year old Haley. It was so great to see them and catch up. Such good people!

On Sunday, we had Meeting and then took a family photo before the kids ran off to play on the hay bales. We had lunch together and then it was time to head out for the airport. The girls and I said our goodbyes and headed out in our rental car at 1:30 for our 2 hour drive to the Tampa airport. Olivia slept the entire way, since she is still congested and has a slight fever. Poor thing. Sofia read and we returned our rental car with just over an hour until our flight left. We checked in and cleared security quickly and were ready to get "snacks." We actually found a grilled chicken, carrots and hard boiled egg container that looked really good, so we each got one. We loaded onto the plane and were happy to see that the plane had individual entertainment, so we each watched a movie on the flight home. It was a good way to pass the time. We landed, collected our bag and met Mitzi who drove us home. Both girls were completely exhausted and sore from their hours on the hay bales. I made pancakes and scrambled eggs for dinner and Buddy was soon home from Stacy's. He was so excited to see us and it was great to have him back. The girls were in bed and asleep by 8:30! It was a quick trip but so much fun and so special to celebrate CK Sr. and Connie's important milestone!

The beautiful cake