Retirement Luau Partay!!

My mother retired from teaching with Alpine School District after 33 years...which meant retirement party to celebrate!!! It took several weeks of planning and coordinating: getting a list of guests, ordering the food & decorations, acquiring past school photos, and planning away to get the guest of honor to come...doing this all without her knowing because we wanted it to be a surprise!! Even though the day of the party was a time-crunch, everything came together and went smoothly! I could not have done this with out Kevin, Tina, Jono, Seth, & Alece! They did so much to help me and were so willing to put forth effort! A huge thanks to them is in order!!!!


Tina, Jono, & Alece were so much help in the food prep!!


Tina made her wonderfully delicious coconut cream cake!! People were asking her for her recipe!


After I about had an anxiety attack over whether or not we'd get the food prepped & the decorations up, we managed to get it together in time!


Everyone is waiting for the retiree to arrive and for the big surprise!


In order to get my mother to the church, Seth asked her if she'd come watch him shoot hoops and/or walk in the gym with my dad. When she came through the door, she was in utter shock and was so touched that all those who attended came to wish her well! Later my mom thought it was weird that my dad agreed to come to the church because exercise is so NOT his thing and was grateful she decided not to change in to sweats & put her hair up in curlers to come to the gym with Seth. As she thought about it more, pieces of the puzzles fell into place: why Alece (who does NOT cook) asked for a rice cooker & crock pot so she could make 'dinner with her roommates' or why I kept asking to look through old photographs so I could post them on Facebook.


She was so happy to see all the teachers/principals that she currently worked with or had worked with in the past! Some she hadn't seen in YEARS! Mr. Jensen was the first principal she had worked with over 30 years ago!


Several friends and neighbors were also able to attend.


Kevin has a co-worker that managed to score a Parrot Ice machine & was kind enough to let us borrow it (as you can see in the bottom right picture). The self-serve slushees were a complete hit!


My mother thoroughly enjoyed going around to chat & catch up with everyone.


Marley thoroughly enjoyed the slushees...it's sad to say but I don't even know how many she had to drink that night! We also found her sitting at a table with those who were strangers to her, just hanging out eating treats!

I coerced my brother, Jono, to get up and say a few things I had written about my mom:

"I'd like to thank everyone for coming to celebrate this landmark event in my mother's life! Born in Japan, Orimi Ackroyd came over to the United States when she was just six months old. She

spent her younger years growing up in Montana, but moved to Utah where she received her undergraduate degree in education from Brigham Young University. She has been married to her husband, Doug, for thirty-one years, and has four children, two boys, Jonathan & Seth, and two girls, Alece & Kimbra. Her first grandchild just turned 2 years old in March, She also had the opportunity to have each one of her children as a student in her class (Alece for 3rd & 4th grade). Teaching has been apart of her life for nearly 33 years. Orimi started her career teaching in Draper, in the Jordan School District, as a first grade teacher for the first two years. She spent 13 years teaching third grade, and nearly 15 years teaching fourth grade. Although she has also taught sixth grade, student taught fifth grade, and has been a substitute for second grade, she is partial to fourth graders. She find the age level and characteristics of the fourth graders satisfying, and "enjoys presenting and talking to the kids, and [being able] to prepare lessons". She also enjoys running into former students and being able to see what they have done with their lives. In fact, two of her former students came back to visit her with the news that they both had achieved perfect scores on their ACT tests!! While teaching full-time, she managed to earn her Master's Equivalent in Education, plus the highest amount of hours you can receive in education through the Alpine School District. She has always worked hard though out her life, which carries over into her work as a teacher. Her future plans include volunteer work, taking lessons & classes in things that she is interested in, but never had time to try, doing a deep clean of her house, traveling, and spending more time with family, including her favorite pet Bischon, Shandon."

I want to congratulate my mother on all her accomplishments and wish her the very, very best in retirement!!