~Sweet Retirement~

After 34 years (I think that's correct?) of working hard with Mike at Mike Keith Insurance,  my dad RETIRED!  The past 13 or 14 years he's been flying back to Missouri one week a month to continue working till his time was done.  My parents lived in Clinton, MO while their six children grew up.  It was the farm before that, more to come about that in a future post.  Then, after all but their youngest had married or moved out, they moved to Utah to be closer to all of their family on both sides.  After moving to Utah, he and a few sons and other relations via marriage, started an insurance agency of their own, Hill Insurance and Investments.  That was sold to the brother of my sister in law, hence the other relation via marriage. 
Finally the day came when he was able to fully retire and start the next adventure for he and my mom...MISSIONS for our church.  Oh, and some very much deserved R&R. 

Even though our whole family couldn't be all together in MO, we, my little family, wanted to do a surprise drive to MO on one of his last days to get to celebrate with him, my mom and those he had worked with for so many years.  We took two days to get there and had so many big ideas of how and where to jump the surprise on them.  BUT...in the end, our plans all went to heck and we just threw ourselves at them just outside of his work when my mom was there picking him up for the day's end.  I was on the phone chatting with them about where they were going to go for dinner and what their plans were for the evening, when we pulled along side of them in our truck and saw the look on their faces.  I was not thinking and didn't video record or even snap one picture of their faces.  That's okay as I don't think we will ever forget that moment and how fun it was. 
So we forced ourselves on them from that point on and didn't let them out of our sight.  We had even arranged our hotel room right next door to theirs.    



We headed off to find a place for dinner so we could catch up and finish celebrating their great retirement. 
The next morning, all of those working at Mike Keith Insurance had planned a breakfast farewell for my dad and mom.  It was an emotional time watching everyone say good bye and share stories and wonderful memories of the past many many years working together.