The Big Party Aftermath

I entirely guessed wrong about how much ice would be needed. That was a month of preparation task I didn’t need to do. Also, too late I realized I could have emptied these outside and let the melting ice water the garden.

The Watergate Cake with Impeachment Frosting was the big winner of the three cakes. It also might have been cut and served when the most people were there.

The Pink Cake was also enjoyed. Once of the guests told me that it was literally the best cake he had ever eaten. I feel the same way about that cake.

The poor Goober Cake didn’t get much play. By the time we cut into it at 8 p.m. we were down to five party attendees.

I thought the 9/11 remembrances turned out well. I enjoyed reading where people were on that date.

We didn’t get a lot of traction on singing, unfortunately.

People were all into the both and plan for celebrating anniversaries. I voted for May.

It was fun to realize that some of us had known each other for a very long time.

The Big Party had the most number of signatures in the party retrospective lineup.

But we had good turnout for this one.

And this one. The 40th birthday party was the biggest party prior to the Big Party.

Happily, cleanup didn’t take very long. Sadly, Burt and Laurie, who were the witnesses for the wedding, couldn’t attend because Burt was ill.

The Big Party Setup

Unlike the blogging heyday, I took no pictures of the party during the party. So here are a bunch of set up pictures.

Early morning buttercream frosting creation and cake frosting. Making real buttercream is one of those magical cooking experiences. Also, I finished up the lemonade and limeade.

There is a mid-party photo! I took this because Deborah won the drawing, but had already departed. I texted her the picture.

The kitties take advantage of the quiet early morning on the catio. They stayed in my bedroom once the party got going. Notice the very clean porch that my brother pressure washed.

A lot of staging, but not quite ready. On the refrigerator you can see the paper where we kept track of RSVPs.

The party-ready incarnation of the refrigerator.

People came in via the back yard, so we oriented a lot of things there.

On the way in, people could initial which parties they had attended over the years. Plus say how long they had known either of us, and vote on when we should celebrate our anniversary.

Brigham City to Boise to Spokane to Portland

At some point across the border in Idaho there was a huge traffic accident that added 40 minutes to our itinerary. It didn’t look like there were any fatalities, thank goodness.

I continued to enjoy the landscape from the farmland to the sagebrush outside of Boise.

At the Boise Airport, I enjoyed this sign. The person sitting next to me on my Boise to Spokane flight had to be talked to by the flight attendant. She told him he was at the point where she needed to start filling out paperwork and if he could keep his mask on from that point on she wouldn’t have to inconvenience them both. He complied after that.

The Boise airport seemed smaller than I remembered. But it wasn’t as small as the Spokane Airport, where I had a middling French Dip sandwich and a huge glass of wine. Eventually my flight to Portland boarded and I landed in my fourth state of the day.