Golden Anniversary

50th Wedding Anniversary!!

Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary is on June 29th. We decided months ago to celebrate this special occasion a couple of weeks early since the Jensens in town this weekend. It also worked out well for Chris's wedding this weekend too. Mom suggested a simple dinner out with the family. So mom and dad and all of us kids and mom's brother and sister all came to celebrate this wonderful occasion. Jen made up a slide show video of pictures through the years and Wendy had prepared a Photo History Book she been working on for the past year.

 

 

The book turned out really nice. 

It is 12X12 and came to 313 pages. 

Here are some sample pages:

 

 

Here's the letter from Wendy ~

Dear Mom and Dad:
A year ago I felt impressed to begin work on a photo book that would include pictures and memorabilia from your life and our family. I wanted to put this together as a gift for your 50th Wedding Anniversary. That is what started the big project of gathering photos, slides, negatives, and other memorabilia to be digitally scanned as well as researching dates and names and editing pictures! I wanted to include as many pictures as I could find from these past fifty years so that they could all be preserved in one place. I realized halfway through this project, however, that I had too many pictures for just one book (and not enough time) to give justice to all 50 years.

So in order to break it down into a more manageable project, I decided that this book would focus on the first 20 years of our family with pictures and details as well as pictures and histories from your growing up years. (Getting you to start on your personal histories was an added benefit!) I figured I could do another book (or two) later focusing on the rest of the years. But I didn't like the idea of ending this book in 1982 and so I decided to add one or two pages of pictures from each year after that to bring it up to the present year, so that it does still cover all 50 years. I hope to make another book later on focusing on the next twenty years and then another which will bring us up to the current date.

I have to admit that this project has been extremely overwhelming and time-consuming but I have learned so much about our family and have been filled with incredible gratitude as I have developed a deeper understanding of how truly blessed I am to have been born into such a wonderful family! I have recalled so many experiences and blessings that I had not thought about for years!  

I would just like to express my gratitude for our wonderful upbringing! You have been amazing parents to all of us and continue to be wonderful parents and grandparents. We are privileged to have been born into such a home as this! I just hope we can live up to our privileges and continue to pass on these wonderful blessings to our own children. I hope you enjoy this keepsake of our family! All of the kids also went in on this book with me, so it is from ALL of us! 

 We love you! 

Wendy

Rex and Zada ... A Lasting Marriage

As we were organizing and labeling pictures we came across the photo in the upper left. The Manti Temple. Mom thought it was Rex and Zada's wedding day but wasn't sure. We asked around and cousin Nikki wrote "This was in an album I scanned years ago with their wedding picture. I’m almost positive it’s Rex and Zada’s wedding day. I love it because those stairs are no longer there. I remember Grandma telling me it was a very low-key and small event. She said Rex’s dad drove them to the Temple and there were very few in attendance. I believe they had a little celebration with a few friends after, but not a big wedding like we have today."  The other pictures may also not be of the wedding day, but with the professional shots (likely shortly before) and with Rex's dad (their wedding day was his birthday) and how dressed up they are, it's a good guess that it is. 

Mom noted that early on, Grandma Zada had actually been Zadia on some documentation. 

I had never seen that, or never noticed, but sure enough ... if you look closely at the certificate above!

This is what Grandpa Rex wrote in his history ... 

"In 1937, I got a job as a bookkeeper and parts manager for a Chevrolet garage that opened in town. After a few months, I purchased my first car. It was a new 1937 2-door sedan and was I proud. Up until that time it had been necessary to wash the truck, after getting it unloaded, in order to go out on a date. During this time, I met a girl I was interested in by the name of Zada Howell. I started dating her and finally asked her to dance. She took me and said the answer was yes. Needless to say, we arrived at the dance just as it was letting out. We decided to get married on April 13, 1938, in the Manti Temple."

Grandma Zada recounted ...

"Rex always kids me about proposing to him since I said "yes" on Girl's Day. In a month or two I had a pretty diamond ring on my third finger. We hoped to be married on my birthday but the Temple was closed for Conference, so we waited a week and got married in the Manti Temple on Dad Norman's birthday. This was April 13, 1938. Daddy Howell was having cancer problems by this time and Mother had spent a lot of time in Salt Lake with him... Dad couldn't go to the Temple with us but Mother went and we had a beautiful sealing. Due to Dad's illness a big wedding was out of the question; however, Miriam and Leota gave me a shower and Eva Cox had a wedding party for us."

Rick and Wendy did some interviews with Grandma and Grandpa so you can hear a little about their story in their own words!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7RBNwtkP2U&t=61s

Golden Wedding Anniversary ~ 50 Years

(check out Mom&Dad's Golden Anniversary too)

... and 20 more. 70 years!