25

My parents celebrated their 25th anniversary this last week. They weren't able to go away like they had wanted to so I came up with an idea to get them out of the house a little bit.

I wrote up 5 clues and some rules to send them on a wild goose chase 'scavenger' hunt. Then I decided that when they got back from their adventure, we would have a lovely dinner waiting for them.

You can be apart of the adventure now too!! (luckkkky ducks)
They had to take a photo of each destination and text it to me before opening the next clue so I could verify they were in the right place.
This was what we hid in their car, their clues and their "field books":

Clue #1
The blue lit aisles scream sales but deep down this place is more than 25% off specials, it's a corporation specializing in the business of looooove.

(They both worked at K-Mart and that's kind of how they met- even though they'd gone to the same church for years)

CHECK! They also had to bring back an object from each place so they brought home a bunch of random rocks haha.

Clue #2:
Where ghosts rattled doors and vacuums swept across floors, the place where you snored with your firstborn.

This funeral home on James street was my first home. My parents cared for the building...NOT the bodies as my dad would have you believe ;). My mom was afraid so she'd hang cans from the door so she'd hear if anyone came in. Weird random story, my aunt met her prom date there when she was a senior and they took pictures in caskets...CREEEPY

Clue #3:
This place didn't moo as expected by it's name but it sure provided lots of fun for at least one more kid to play.

This was our next house in Fairhaven (on Cowgale, hence the moo clue). We ran a group home with 3 DD adults when I was growing up and Ty was born when we lived here.

Clue #4:
Where the family was completed, this is where we stayed for many years when the days were lazy and the summers were hazy.

This was our next house in Ferndale. We lived here from when I was in 2nd grade until 8th grade. I loved this house. It had a huge yard that my dad built a lot of things in. We moved to be in the Meridian school district and to get out of that 'hood. I want to go through it again but they haven't moved so no open houses :(

Clue #5:
Where you now reside, hidden in the deep, follow the pathway home where you will find the treasure you seek!!
No photo of our house now, they didn't think it was necessary ;)

My clues are a little cheesy but whatev's it got them out of the house for about an hour, enough time to do this:

Make dinner which was mashed potatoes, veggies, salmon (salad not pictured). I also made little menus for our 25 Cafe.
We also cleaned the kitchen/living room areas while they were gone and set up their special table.

Complete with flame-less candles (we almost burned the house down when the salmon caught on fire so we decided to play it safe ;)) Cheesecake filling stuffed strawberries drizzled with chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers.

We had their anniversary gift which was a gift card to eat and a couple movie passes with roses.

Sam was the server and had on his church clothes and a fake mustache but didn't let me take a pic, jerk haha.

Other funny story. Everyone was gone this afternoon so after I got back from Costco, I started hulling out the strawberries to fill them with the cheesecake filling. Well half way through my dad pulled up so I grabbed everything off the counter and hid it behind my bed in my room (see above pic)... i finished filling them here then luckily Sam called to be picked up so I was able to cover them and sneak them to the fridge to await their chocolate drizzle.

So that's our day celebrating my parents 25 years of marriage. I also had them write down at least one memory from each location so we have a few stories of each place now.