Celebrating 30 years of Jon Smith!

You only turn 30 once, and since Jon would never let me openly plan a party for him, I had to go covert and plan one without him knowing so we could all celebrate the completion of his third decade of life. The occasion called for nothing less than a surprise barbecue at the park (ironically the one we got engaged at). I have to say, during this whole month of planning it was soooo hard to keep quiet to the person I love to talk to the most. I was so excited! In the end, there was a great turnout, the weather was perfect, the barbecue was tasty, and Jon was so surprised it took him a minute to actually realize that all the people were there for him. That was confusion on his face everyone, not lack of excitement (except for maybe a twinge of disappointment since I got him there by telling him that I wanted to play football with him, and he pretty much fell in love with me all over again for saying that—but upon our arrival at the park he quickly realized there might not be any football playing that night). Believe me, he LOVED it. He couldn't get over everyone that was there and how no one had slipped telling him ahead of time.

I have to give a massive shout out to Rachel Allen, my co-host that has helped me for weeks to pull all the pieces together, pick the park, and round up the troops. I could not have pulled it off without her. Thanks also to the Croshaws for housing the meat and charcoal and taking them over for the party, and a huge thanks to Ashlee Cutler, who let me play Betty Crocker at her house up until ridiculous hours night trying to finish Jon's cake the night before. And congrats to everyone for keeping the secret, Jon was so perfectly un-suspecting. I love how easy it is to surprise him because he's just so easy to please!! Thanks a MILLION to everyone for coming, Jon LOVED seeing all of you, and he had so much fun!! I tried to get pictures of everyone, but seeing as I forgot to even start taking pictures until we'd all been there about 45 mins, I missed some party-goers, sorry about that.

And for those of you from near and far that I had write in the memory book for Jon, it turned out SOOO good. I didn't give it to him until he thought everything was over and we were back from the party, and he could not believe how many people I had to to write something to him. I told him all his friends that don't even know me probably think I'm some really obnoxious and demanding girl after all the emails I sent begging for their responses, but I promise I'm not really like that...it was only because it wouldn't have been complete without all of you in it! Can we still be friends?? All your efforts were totally worth it, because Jon absolutely loves it. And I have to admit that I had so much fun reading all of your entries, because I got to learn more things about Jon and more things about each of you, and some of you I hardly know at all, so whatever high opinions of you I had already probably multiplied by at least 10. :) Thanks again...the cover of his book is the last picture in this chain of photos, in case you want to see it.

Party on...


the cake


the grill



























the peeps








some of the cute kids



the gifts