Thirty Love Jack

Jack woke up early on May 16 this year. It was a big day for him. Thirty years old. We had been planning for weeks, and Jack turned up the pressure to make his 30th one to remember.



I think we succeeded. If you missed the party, shame on you. For the 35-40 people who did make it, it was a crawfish extravaganza that shan't soon be forgotten.

We started the party off right with a giant batch of crawfish, and the recipe got better as the night progressed.







The weather didn't stop us, as our neighbors generously donated a couple of tents for the occasion. It rained off and on for most of the day, and our carpet took the brunt of the punishment, but the rain did little to deter our plans.

Jack only pretended to be offended at the shirts I made for a few lucky partygoers. I took our favorite school picture of Jack from when he was about 13 years old, added a clever title

Sorry the quality is so poor. I didn't get a close up photo until after the party, when the shirt had been washed.

and we paraded out in front of the crowd to Jack's feigned dismay.

As you can see, he really did love the final product.


I also put together a rather embarrassing slide show of Jack growing up, complimented with a few great photos of myself, but lucky for Jack, his guests never got to see it, since I forgot to show it!! Trust me, it was great.

Special thanks to all of the out-of-towners who made the drive to help us celebrate.

The Jollys

The Hollemans before the party got started

Rob came all the way from New Orleans and Allen from Columbus

Joey (since we're counting Columbus)

The McNeeses (how did they get away without a photo???)

Rob J. and Beau

and all the ones I have forgotten. I would also like to thank everyone who came prepared with a toast. Jack's brother Rob made a fantastic video from footage he shot during the party and all of the stories you shared behind Jack's back.

From getting lost while driving to Louisville to get the crawfish to scrubbing our carpet the next day, the evening in between was well worth all of the effort. I hope everyone who came had as much fun as we did!

Only a few crawfish were psychologically tortured during the making of this party.

Happy 30th Jack!