Dakota, Dallin, Logan, & Seth
Avery, Carly, Hazel, Rylee, Taylor, Annie, Lucy, Calyn, & LaurenLitros and Paula (AKA: mom and dad) retired together on May 28th and patiently wait for their mission call.
What a great extended weekend we had. This reunion has secretly been planned for about 5 months now. All 5 MANGUM siblings flew or drove in from UTAH, OHIO, NORTH CAROLINA, & good ole' LOUISIANA to be a part of this special time in the parents lives. The best part of it all was that it was a total surprise for Carl and Paula. AND, the last time that all 5 siblings and spouses, including grandkids, were all together was in December 2003. This was just a couple of months post-mission for my Baby Brent and I wasn't in the picture yet- so this was a first with everyone for me!
Snap shot of the events:
Mark (Utah) and his wife and two children flew in to Baton Rouge on the 26th. They stayed with Brent and I at our place for a night then drove to Alexandria Thursday to spend a night with Aaron and Jeni.
Craig (North Carolina) along with his wife Jordan and their 4 kids drove from North Carolina-leaving on Thursday and arrived Friday night in Leesville.
Laurie (Ohio) and her husband Tim and their three children drove Friday morning and just barely made it to Leesville Saturday afternoon before the "surprise" party.
So Mark, Janna, Aaron, Jeni, Rylee, Lauren, Calyn & Logan all surprised Paula Friday afternoon at her office just shortly before the work day was over. Paula was in SHOCK from what I hear. She was thrilled and thought that was that. However, when they arrived home, Craig and his family walked in and surprised her again! Carl was still working somewhere so he missed all of the initial shocking that Paula experience. The crew-Mark's Family, Aaron's Family, & Craig's Family all went out for dinner and Paula had Carl just meet her out. It was then that Carl saw the crew.
Saturday morning Brent and I drove over with our two. Paula and Carl still didn't know about any pending Surprise party and we told her that Laurie wasn't going to make it because her children were still in school. Family pictures were schedule for 4:30 where my good friend Jane drove-ON HER BIRTHDAY-to capture the moment for us. Laurie and her family finally arrived at 4:15 at the house. Laurie's children Taylor, Dallin, & Carly ran down the drive and into the house where we greeted them and waited for Paula to come in the room to find out what all of the comotion was about. There she was in tears again as she saw her WHOLE family together. YES, all 25 of us!
We headed to the church-our decoy for the surprise party was the family photograph-and there we celebrated all that there was to celebrate. Being together!
We LOVE you Litros and Paula and all you other Mangum hooligans.
Annie with Aunt Janna. Annie is wearing an apron because she pooped her pants which turned out to be a disaster and we ran out of clothes for the time being. She seemed pretty content though wearing the apron...or maybe it was just that Aunt Janna was holding her.
Aaron & Carly
Jo-Dawg*************************************************
MEMORIAL DAY
(Swimming and MORE Swimming)
I'm pretty sure Brent was thrown in the pool because this was not his swimming attire earlier in the day.
3 comments:
Those Mangums sure know how to party! The girls outnumber the boys by a few, huh? It looks like you had a blast.
Looks like an awesome time.
Suprise upon surpise --- what more could parents ask of the Lord than have all their children in one place at one time, active in the church, happily married, and grand children to love and spoil! It doesn't get much better than this!
Post a Comment