Dad's 50th Birthday

Suprise!
Cool glasses.
Dad, myself, Joe, Liz and Bryan
His kids!

Father/daughter dance skills....

HURRICANE IKE!!

Dad turned 50 on September 9th....we had a party for him on Saturday, September 13th....that also happened to be the day Hurricane Ike decided to make an arrival in Arkansas and dump rain and wind gusts that were about 50 miles per hour. Anyway.

We had the party at Landry's in Fort Smith. Tons of his old buddies were there....you can make a very eclectic group of friends in 50 years. We had a blast. Dad knew there was going to be a party, but was not given ANY details. He assumed small...family....a couple of friends. Dad kept saying things like:

"Your going to way too much trouble." (After he spotted some of the decorations in the car)

"Stop all this fussing over me."

"The five friends I have aren't going to come out in this rain/hurricane."

Well, we had 52 RSVP'ed guests, all of which showed up.....along with a few extras. I think he might have been a little overwhelmed at first...but slowly made his way around the room.....and had a wonderful time. I saw people I haven't seen in years. It was nice to spend an evening "visiting" with old friends. The evening really got exciting after dinner when he decided to show off his dance moves with all the women on the dance floor. It was hilarious. I went for a spin around the dance floor with him. I know where my dancing skills came from.

We got to the party before the rain really started pouring down....and when we left the party and walked the 3 or 4 blocks back to our hotel we got soaked. I mean, the most soaked I have ever been. It felt like I had put my clothes in a bathtub full of water, taken them out and then wore them around. I just can't explain how wet we all were. And the umbrellas were just thrashing in the wind. The boys ran off and left Kati and I....as usual......and I had to give my feet a break every 5 feet while Kati patiently waited on me....shielding off the rain. The courtyard marriott had never looked so good. We made quite an entrance into the hotel....