This past weekend I was fortunate enough to spend it my daddy in Illinois! Since I live 1,500 miles away from my family, I couldn’t believe that I was going to get to spend father’s day with the most influential man in my life. And might I say, what a father’s day weekend it was!
Daddy and I met up at the airport on Friday evening around 6:30. Since we flew into the same airport and Dad got there before me, he was there waiting for me at the gate when I got off the plane! I mean, when was the last time you had someone waiting for you at your gate?! That hasn’t been legal for years! It was quite a nice surprise. After grabbing some drinks for the road, we headed up to the little town of Sycamore, IL where my Uncle Tim (Dad’s little brother by just over a year) and his family have lived for as long as I can remember. Once we got to the house, we were greeted by all of our family with lots of hugs and kisses that I missed so much. We spent the evening catching up, telling old stories and as always, embarrassing each other 🙂
Wedding Day
Saturday was Wedding day!!! My cousin Nick was getting married to a wonderful young woman named Samantha McClellan. Nick is my cousin that is closest to me in age. I am actually only 14 months older than he is and we grew up very close to one another until about the time that I went off to college. It had been a while since our families got together and I’ve missed them WAYYY too much. We spent Saturday morning helping my aunt and uncle set up the reception hall. It actually turned out to be quite fun even though we were up super early (which we all know has never really been a problem for me). It was a crazy busy day trying to get everything set up. My Aunt Kim (the groom’s mom) even made the wedding cake! It turned out beautifully and I got to help decorate it! Here are some pictures taken by my iPhone of the reception hall and the wedding ceremony!
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| All decorated! Aunt Darlene and I put on ALL of the table cloths…not as quick and easy as you would think! |
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| Bride and Groom’s seats |
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| Working hard or hardly working? Who knows 🙂 |
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| The cake! Made by the one and only Kim Timmer! |
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| I helped decorate! Check out those pink and purple flowers! |
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| Pretty church |
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| My hero 🙂 |
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| The moms lighting the unity candle |
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| My cousins: Dan and Cindi – Best Man and Maid of Honor |
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| My cousin Jake and his cousin Haven – so sweet 🙂 |
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| The bride! She was walked down the aisle by her little brother, Dale |
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| Promising to be there for each other forever! |
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| Time to cut the cake! |
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| First dance! |
From here on out I was pretty much on the dance floor with my cousins and their friends for the rest of the night. Thus, no pictures. I kept getting all of the teenage girls out on the dance floor that were too shy to go out by themselves. Let’s be honest, I’m not afraid to make a fool of myself and I had no one to impress so why not have a blast!!! We definitely danced the night away 🙂 Then headed to the after party at my uncles house…
Time with Dad
On Sunday morning, it was a bit harder for dad and I to get up and moving, but we managed. After a quick breakfast, we decided to drive up to Rockford, which is where my dad lived all his life, to visit my grammy and grampa’s graves for Father’s day. We got to say hello and say a little prayer for him. Even though it was about a 50 minute drive each way and we were only at the cemetery for 15-20 minutes, I would say it was completely worth it. I miss my grampa terribly and I know that he was there 🙂 Once we were back in Sycamore, we spent a few hours at my aunt and uncle’s house before we had to head to the airport. All in all , dad and I had a fantastic weekend and I’m so glad that we got to spend it together and with a bunch of other family!
In just a few hours, Julie is going to land in Pittsburgh and we are going to have a jam packed, fun filled next few days! We’re especially looking forward to our trip to Niagra Falls this weekend! Until next time…
