Last weekend our sweet daughters planned the most lovely early 40th anniversary celebration for my husband and me! Their gift to us was a family photo session with some great photographers from our area.
Plan A was to go to a park in our area, but the day turned out very wet.
Enter Plan B!
We used our newly decorated family room’s lovely blue wall as our backdrop! It ended up being really great (God’s interruptions always are!). I’ll share just a few of my favorite photos from the day.
This next photo is from our wedding day, June 20, 1981!
Lots of things have changed, but Dale’s fun-loving spirit is not one of them!
After the family poses were all taken, the photographers invited each couple to come outside and stand in the rain under their giant umbrella for some really great rainy day shots! I love this one of Paul and Whitney!
And Alli and Andrew…
Here are the “Oldie-weds!”
After a delicious lunch at Carrabba’s, we went to Alli and Andrew’s for dessert, consisting of a scrumptious Strawberry Cake. Whitney decorated for the party in her typical flare. It was so much fun and so pretty!
We can hardly believe we are staring 40 years in the face, but we are so thankful. God has been faithful, spite our old sin natures and imperfect love, He has guided us, provided for us and grown us. We pray that the years we have remaining will find us pointing others to the glorious Gospel where Jesus demonstrated the perfect sacrificial love, forgiveness, mercy, kindness, grace, and submission.
Here’s praise for (almost) 40 years!
RefreshHer 
Happy anniversary!! What a special celebration. Last year for Mother’s Day I gifted my mom a family photoshoot- it was the first time we had done professional pictures in 13 years and so overdue!
xoxo A
http://www.southernbelleintraining.com
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Thank you so much! Yes, a photoshoot is a terrific gift! It’s fun and leaves such special moments to remember. I’m sure your mom was appreciative of your thoughtfulness!
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We loved celebrating you and Dad! ❤ It was such a fun day!
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You all are the best! We made another special family memory!
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Happy Anniversary! We celebrated 45 years last year (we married young!) and I know the feeling of “How did we get here so quickly?”! And also the faithfulness of the Lord! Love the idea of a family photo shoot! My favorites are of you with your grandsons, the “current” of the wedding-day pose, and the rainy-day shots! What a wonderful day!
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Thank you, and congratulations on your 45 years! What’s funny about the pose with my husband holding me in his arms is that he didn’t intentionally pose to recreate that photo! When we got the pictures back, I suddenly realized that that same pose was in our wedding album! As I said in this post, Dale’s fun-loving spirit has not changed!
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What great family photos! Congratulations!
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Thank you, Alinda. The photographers were so good and snapped away while we had such a great family time together. They made it easy just to be ourselves. =)
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Happy Anniversary, Dale and Denise! You are such an inspiration to many.
The photos are beautiful!
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You’re sweet, Debbi; thank you so much.
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Happy anniversary, Denise! What great photos…you have such a precious family! The love shared between all of you really shows in the photos!! I love that last one of the “oldy-weds”!!:) Cute!
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Thank you so much, Jennifer. We are sinners, saved by grace and certainly have our issues, but we are so very blessed!
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How cute are those pictures under the umbrella? Happy anniversary!
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Thank you, Johanna! I loved that the photographer made the most of the rainy day!
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