Happy 80th Birthday to Mike! October 17, 2019

Nobody can believe, including me, that Mike is now officially 80 years old!  People always ask what the secret is to his youth and he usually says it's being married to a younger woman, plus good genes, and working out at the gym religiously, living a clean, healthy life and just taking care of himself.  I hope that I can be as young as he is when I'm 80!  He is an inspiration to us all!  I'm grateful for him and so blessed to have him in my life!  I love you, Mike Moore.

We decided together that a party would be a fun idea!  So I got busy and planned a party.  It turned out way better than I had hoped for and Mike was thrilled.  We had all of our kids attend except for Melecia who is in Chile.  Three of her kids came though so she was represented.  Many of our kids' spouses came as well as 20 of our grandchildren and one great-grandson!  There were also many friends who came to wish him well.  There were 91 people there!  I would say he is very loved and admired by many.

We had the party at our church in the cultural hall.  Cindi helped me a lot to plan how to decorate and she set me up with a wonderful lighting guy, Nephi, with Moonlight Lighting.  We had wonderful bistro lighting and who knew the new church buildings have canned lights with dimmers in the gyms?  It was magical.  Cindi suggested large balloon centerpieces with tassels and they turned out perfectly as well.  Joni made a fantastic cake and Nancy did the food, three meat and cheese charcuterie boards.  It was fabulous and so delicious!  We had a couple of Costco sheet cakes and Martinelli's that we passed out in Champagne glasses for a toast to the birthday boy.  Louise was our photographer and videographer!  She's fabulous!!

 

Hannah made a playlist and we had a dance, but first we had an hour of visiting and then a wonderful program.  Dale was the MC and he was so funny with lots of old age jokes and tidbits of old person trivia.  Mike's good friend from his childhood and youth, Tom Plummer, spoke a bit about Mike's younger years.  Hannah sang one of his favorite Arias from La Boheme, Ryan and Eric sang their own rendition of a Mike Moore favorite, Cowboy Joe.  Ryan also sang a song he composed himself and played guitar with it.  Sadie sang with him.  Glen sang "My Funny Valentine," which is another of Mike's favorites.  Mike's brother, David and wife, Viera, sang "Unforgettable" with a slide show that played while they sang.  Tyler and Joel both shared special memories of Mike and Steven gave the toast.  We had a rousing singing of the Happy Birthday song, accompanied by Brett Barrett.  Mike and I sang "In This Very Room," which we sang at our wedding reception and expressed our love for our family and friends.  It was a very touching program.  Our Brazil missionary couples sang Happy Birthday to him in Portuguese when he blew out his candles.

Let's all raise our glass to a wonderful man and a wonderful life.  Here's to many more birthdays!  Now let the wild ruckus and dancing begin!!

The celebration actually started earlier in the week as people started arriving.  Nancy and Dale arrived on Monday night prior to the Friday party.  They were a big help and also always fun to be with.  Ryan and Ali's family were the next to arrive and they stayed here with us.  We took them to Thanksgiving Point to Farm Country and then we all went to JDawgs.

Nancy was taking the picture

 We spent much of the week preparing for the party, but still had time for some fun!  Thursday night, Mike's actual birthday, we met at Olive Garden for a birthday dinner.  David, Viera, Jim, Deb, Dale, Nancy, Eric, Hannah, Chase, and Violet all joined us.  It was a fun time for Mike to catch up with his brothers and we all enjoyed a delicious meal.

The party was on Friday night.  Saturday, we had a few things going on.  We had a lot of the family over for pancakes in the morning and for sloppy joes in the evening.  During the day, I went with my kids to the dinosaur museum.  Mike and his boys and Erin, Carter, Emmy, her boyfriend Austin, and Meggy went to the BYU/Boise State game at BYU.  It didn't start until 8:15 pm and it was rainy mixed with snow and windy and very cold.  They stayed to the bitter end and BYU won!  Dale, Nancy, Mike and I were thrilled but pretty much everyone else was disappointed.

Here's to another 80 years! We love you!