A Celebration

On August 9th Spence and I were in Utah to celebrate the 70th birthday of my brother Bill's wife, Marlene Mahaffey. She knew the immediate family that lived nearby would all be their for their monthly Sunday dinner, but Bill planned a few extra surprises. Crystal and Rob came from AZ, Kathryn Hancock (her best friend since 4th grade) came from AZ, Bonnie and Joe came from Idaho and Spence and I showed up from CA.

They labeled 3 doors in Shannons house, and the surprise guests (except for Rob and Crystal) each hid behind a door. As she chose each door, she discovered her surprise guests, and it was wonderful.

Doran and Greg BBQ'd all the kabobs we had put together, and along with Bill's baked beans, Shannon's salad, rice pilaf and all the extra fruit and veggies and good stuff that people brought, we feasted. Of course it was topped off with a birthday cake decorated in pink, to signify the battle to fight Breast Cancer.

We took pictures and laughed and took more pictures until we were all so tired we had to call it a night.

The next afternoon, the 5 Mahaffey kids and the rest of the out-of-town guests joined Bill and Marlene at the Brick Oven in Provo, for a farewell luncheon. Yummy....We had to leave early, because we were expected in St. George by 7 that night.

Marlene looked gorgeous...better than I had seen her in 4 years. It is hard to believe what she is actually going through. Crystal, her AZ daughter, is planning on doing the 60 mile, 3 day Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in November in her honor. Check out the website and support her if you can.

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/ArizonaEvent2009?px=3098075&pg=personal&fr_id=1290