The Travels of LynDen Haus: Wenatchee, WA and a 65th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

Monday, 20 January 2014. After we returned from our cruise into Alaska's Inside Passage on 14 July 2013, we headed back to Wenatchee, WA, to finish the planning and to get ready for the 65th wedding anniversary celebration of Lynette's parents, Glenn & Glenna. As we found out, there was still LOTS to do. Lynette, Glenna, and Lynette's sister, Lori, did the bulk of the "heavy lifting" in getting everything ready for the actual celebration that took place later in July. Plans were to have the event outdoors, on the banks of the Columbia River, so we were all praying for good weather. As it turned out, we were lucky. Weather in July in this part of Washington State can be brutally hot. Since a good number of the guests would be seniors, we were concerned about any sweltering heat. We ended up having a very nice sunny day, warm, but not too hot, with just enough breeze to keep things cool, but not blow everything off the tables set up outside. All in all, things worked out pretty good. Glenna asked me to serve as the "unofficial" photographer and boy, did I take a boat-load of pics. The ones you'll see in this blog entry are just a small representation of what I snapped. For this blog I've tried to include mostly "family" shots and a few others to give readers a "feel" for the whole event. Finally, I have to shout out "Kudos" to Lynette, Lori, and their Mom, Glenna, for putting together some terrific storyboards for members of Glenn & Glenna's immediate family. And Lori did a simply great job in putting together -- and printing out -- a super storyline board that told the "story" of Glenn & Glenna's married life in pictures. This thing turned out to be some 3-ft high and almost 16-ft long, and covered a good portion of two walls inside of the reception hall. First class job, Lori.

The 65th wedding anniversary couple, Glenna & Glenn -- Congratulations you two!

View of the table set up inside the reception hall showing the cake and a photo of their wedding day with the newly married couple cutting another cake. If anyone out there is really clever you might notice that the cake topper on the cake for today's celebration is the ORIGINAL cake topper in the B&W photograph to the left. Glenna saved it for all these many years. BTW: I didn't taste it -- not on a dare!

Closer view of the cake.

Getting ready to cut the cake!

Glenna & Glenn posing with their two daughters, my wife, Lynette, and her sister, Lori

Lynette & Lori -- two beautiful sisters!

Lori and her husband, David

Jenni, Lori's oldest daughter, and her two kids, Dylan and Ellie

Lori's middle daughter, Janie (R), her husband Stephen, and their two kids, Raven and Sam

Lori's youngest daughter, Joni, her husband Greg, and their two kids, Taylor and Gabrielle

David's son, Jonathan, and his wife, Cassie

Glenna & Glenn and some of their great-grandchildren.

A shot of the whole clan, including children, grand-children, and great-grandkids. Quite a group!

I took the next few pics before any guests had arrived to show the tables set up on these beautiful grounds. This outdoor setting was maybe 100-yds from the Columbia River, offering some pretty nice views.

You can just catch a glimpse of the Columbia River, center left.

I used this rustic looking storage shed/cabin as a backdrop for many of the family pics in this blog entry. I loved how the ivy growing in and around and on the shed gave it just the "right touch."

Had to include at least one shot of the guests eating -- in this case, a piece of the wedding cake!

Lori and her three girls: L-R, Janie, Jenni, and Joni.

Glenna's sister, Judy, and her husband, Mick, drove over from the Seattle area to join us for the celebration. If you remember from a previous blog entry, we stopped and visited with Judy & Mick for the day after our cruise into Alaska's Inside Passage. So glad they joined us for the today's party!

A shot of Glenn addressing the assembled guests, thanking everyone for coming, and also thanking any and all who helped make it happen.

Glenn & Glenna with their pastor who gave a very nice blessing for today's celebration.

One of the "storyboards" Glenna and Lynette put together on display inside the reception hall. This one tells a quick story of Glenn & Glenna's life together thru pics. Don't ya' just love those high school pics!

This storyboard shows the hobbies of our celebrated couple. Pics of Glenna's handmade quilts and wall hangings, and Glenn's needlepoint and paintings. The ribbons they won at various fairs are on the table.

At one point in their lives. Glenn & Glenna were full-time RVers -- just like we're doing now -- traveling all over the USA. This storyboard depicts their travels over the course of those years.

The 15 great-grandkids...and one great-great grandchild got their very own display.

I'll wrap up this blog entry with several pics of the "storyline" board that Lynette's sister, Lori, put together. As I said earlier, the sheer size of this presentation was HUGE: 3-ft by 16-ft. We used two walls inside the reception hall to display the whole thing. As you can imagine, as guests came thru and looked at the various storyboards on display, the line to this storyline backed up as people wanted to really read and study the whole thing. Lori did one really, really great job in putting this whole thing together. I should mention the work that Lynette and Glenna did in running down various pics, scanning them into the computer, editing pics that needed editing, and then sending them via computer to Lori. Nice job, ladies!