45th Anniversary Date Night

To celebrate my parents' 45th wedding anniversary we surprised them with a fun date night.  My three brothers, my sister, and all of our spouses got sitters for the kids and joined them for a fun family date! 

 We headed to a great restaurant called Fire + Ice Bar and Grill.  It is a place where they have tons of "raw" ingredients and you can make 1000s of combinations and then  you take your bowl of ingredients to the grill and the grill masters cook your food for you.  You get to go back as many times as you want.  It is so fun to see what everyone makes.

We took a few family photos...

The Ladies

The Men

Then we headed down to the Balboa Fun Zone in Newport and boarded our own rented boat and Sam was our captain and drove the boat for us.

Captain Sam

While we were on the boat Mom and Dad told stories about how they met, their wedding, and we laughed about their old boy friends and girl friends.  We brought along fun desserts and drinks to enjoy as we sailed around Balboa Island in the Newport Bay and watched the sunset.

All Aboard!

The sunset over Newport Bay

It was a beautiful night in so many ways.  We all felt really blessed to be all together and to be able to celebrate our parents who have modeled marriage so well for us all.

Mom and Dad

Dan and Elizabeth

Lindsay and Ben

Kathryn and Jake

Kristy and Joe

Captain Sam and his first mate Kristen!

Just the 12 of us!