Like every summer during Labor Day weekend, we went up to the Lac St-Jean area, about 300 km north of Quebec City, for our annual family gathering and corn roast. This took place at my uncle's place, in the rural town of Ste-Jeanne-d'Arc. This years again, along with some relatives, my parents drove the Travco up there and parked at my uncle's place for a few days.
This years we wanted to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary with the family. Mom and Dad had no idea that we were going to do anything or even mention the 50th anniversary during this weekend, since for them we had already celebrated the event in July with the trip to Cuba. But we had a few surprises in store for them...
We started at first light on saturday morning. It was like 5am, with Mom and Dad still sleeping in their motorhome, we quietly put some decorations on the Blue Whale and on the ground around it. Then we got back to bed...
When Mom and Dad woke up a few hours later, they just couldn't believe it!
On the grass in front and around the Blue Whale we planted about 25 large plastic flowers, and about 60 white balloons. The motorhome also had been decorated with white ribbons, including a big bow on the nose, with a sign that said (translated from French): "Just Married... 50 years ago!"
(As a side note, you should have seen us, me, my wife and daughter, the previous evening, blowing all those balloons while camped in our popup camper, set up only a few meters from the Blue Whale. You can only blow so many balloons in a popup, I can tell you that the camper quickly filled to the roof with balloons, they were everywhere, we literally had no place to do anything, a really funny sight! We slept among balloons that night!)
In the afternoon, as the whole family was there for the gathering, we had our second surprise for our parents: we had a ministry from the local parish who presided over a short ceremony where my parents renewed their wedding vows.
After the outdoor picnic of corn, burgers and hot-dogs, we had our last surprise: we had a big 50th anniversary cake, and a small glass of sparkling wine for everyone! Cheers!
Then we had nice fireworks, for the pleasure of everyone!
