Back in Edmonton, we had a little time before the main event, scheduled for that Saturday. Knackered from the late drive on Sunday evening, we slept in on Monday and did not much of anything most of the day. A little laundry, lounging in the dry sunshine, and watching 'Stardust' with Adele.
Sufficiently relaxed, we put significantly more on the schedule for Tuesday. We went to the waterpark in West Edmonton Mall with Mark, Linda and Adele. Being a waterpark veteran, I felt it was my duty to take my little niece and show her the ropes. The problem was that it had been more than a decade (perhaps two) since I had been down any of these slides. We chose the Blue Bullet to start and as I seem to remember it being rather benign. As I rocketed down the slide at twice the speed of sound I wasn't sure if I was more frightened for my own well-being or that of my poor little niece, who must have been scared out of her wits. Luckily she came out of the tube giving us a double thumbs up and the rest of the morning and early afternoon passed with a series of slides intermittently broken up by trips to the wave pool. Favourites were the rather tame corkscrew slide and the rather more daring Tropical Typhoon. Nobody dared go on the near vertical drop followed by loop-de-loop. I kid you not, this slide looked ridiculous. You didn't get in and slide down, to start you had to get inside a tube and when the timing was right they would simply pull the floor out from under you.
We followed up the waterpark with some pretty hardcore shopping, picking up clothes, Canadiana (a Roots sweater) and comic books (a passion I share with Mark and Adele). Just before the dinner bell rang we parted ways and Fiona and I ran off to meet my good buddy Rob and his girlfriend Lindsey for dinner and a movie. As always it turned out to be a complete success - dinner was good, conversation picked up like it hadn't been years since we had seen each other and the movie - 'Crazy, Stupid Love' - was excellent.
Wednesday was low-key again. Fiona and Adele helped my mom by thinking up and making all of the table decorations for the party. I went with my Dad and bought the alcohol. Two great big check-marks for the party. Fiona spent the afternoon taking in some more sun, and Linda, Mark, Adele and I went to the local cinema to catch 'Super 8'. Other than the overly large Spielbergian helping of Daddy issues, it was another good one. The whole family got together in the evening for dinner at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant - Thanh-thanh. The wonton soup, szechaun chicken and singapore noodles were the highlights of an all our around magnificent meal. We finished the night by going back to Hanneke and Jul's to finalize our plans for the party and practice the song that we had put together.
Thursday was a work day. We all pitched in to get the house tidy for all the aunts and uncles that were arriving later that day - or should have arrived. The Brooymans's arrived first, with my Ome Wim and Tante Els and Ome Harrie and Tante Adje. The Jacobs's were supposed to arrive that evening, but were delayed in Chicago and wouldn't make it until the next day. Even more unfortunately, their bags didn't arrive until Saturday. With the house full, we checked into a nearby hotel.
The day of the party was a blur of activity. Fiona and I went early to help load the alcohol in the fridge and decorate the hall. It all went quite smoothly. We jetted back to the hotel to shower and change and then came back to the hall to meet the caterer before everyone else showed up. It ended up being a good thing we came early as, in the only glitch of the evening, the bus bringing my parents and all the extended family didn't show, making the guests of honour late for their own party.
After that, everything went amazingly well and the party was a blast on so many levels. The atmosphere was great, and we got to see so many people that we hadn't seen in a very long time. The food was great - kudos to Jim on his lemongrass pork chops - the beer was cold, and thanks to the awesome DJ combo of Fiona and my Dad, the tunes kept the dance floor full until the end of the night.
In typical Dutch tradition for a 40th anniversary party, family did a bunch of songs celebrating my parents. Our 'Yellow Submarine' knock-off went over well, and Adele's poem was heart warming. The Jacobs family's contribution can be found on YouTube, and Fiona stepped in to help Ome Wim with the Brooymans family speech.
One of the nicest things wasn't the reunion with family and friends or any of the other party acoutrements, but the actual reason for the party itself - a celebration of 40 years of marriage between two people who still make such an amazing couple. They have set a wonderful example for Fiona and myself, and I must confess that I found myself thinking what our party would be like, come 2042. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for showing us how its done right.
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