… when I really wish we had a good camera.
Not so bright, but early Thursday morning, we piled luggage, snacks, drinks, and lots of coats into the suburban and headed up to the Arctic (well, it seemed like the Arctic to this Southern girl!). Okay, it was just Illinois. It was an 8-8.5hr drive. There was snow constantly from Kentucky, but they keep the roads impressively ice-free up there. Once again, I was shocked by the lack of hills, but there were piles of snow that, when I got bored, I pretended were mini-pseudo-hills.
What possessed us to head in the general direction of freezing? Well, just about the only thing that I would have been willing, and eager, to go north for in January: a wedding!!! We were blessed to attend the wedding of Colton and Raquel! Unfortunately we didn’t pull our camera out much, and the pictures we did get were pretty awful. However, I think there are about 3 good enough to share here.
Anna did a wonderful job (as usual) playing piano for the ceremony.
Watching the lovely bride come in.
The vows were absolutely beautiful!
And that’s all the non-blurry pictures we have. I wish we had more! 
We left almost immediately after the bride and groom; we got home around 10:00pm.
We had a wonderful time, and I’m greatly looking forward to the next wedding … whoever, wherever, and whenever that might be. 
Emil Bandy said:
Yeah, and then ya’ll left without saying bye!! The Lingos remembered…
Ah well… Oh, and I forgot to ask you in person about how your tests/college was going! I mean, I’m reading your updates, but it’s way easier to talk about that in person vs. online….
reformedtngirl said:
*Ahem* I will swear before anyone you like that I called out to you and said goodbye while in the coat room. Everyone was around there though, so I assumed you didn’t hear. We really didn’t have enough time to do decent goodbyes with anyone; I didn’t even say goodbye to our hostess!
Yeah. Looks like you’ll just have to come down soon and ask me then.
Until then, everything’s going pretty good so far; Civil War was fairly easy, considering, and Vietnam is boring. I expect the Soviet Union and Middle East tests to be difficult, and that’s ’bout all I know.
Emil Bandy said:
Ok, yes, I didn’t hear… ’cause if I had… I would swear before anyone YOU like that I would’ve said goodbye back!! However, I will accept the unheard goodbye – if you will accept me saying goodbye back online.
LOL… yeah… those tests are getting way out of my experience too… see’n as I got a business degree, I didn’t have to take quite so many of those history tests….
reformedtngirl said:
LOL! Accepted. Glad you validated my assumption. I much prefer to think of you as deaf than rude.
I looked at the business degrees briefly early on… I’m really glad I decided to go with history. Economics, math, and business-y stuff are definitely NOT my forte!
Melissa McDonald said:
Nutty me….posting this on the post before! =) My bad…..
As I said before, it was great to see y’all there!! Wish y’all could’ve stayed a bit longer. But, all in all, we enjoy the visit immensely! =)Looking forward to seeing y’all again sometime the he future! *laughs* Hope you don’t mind seeing it twice!! =}
reformedtngirl said:
No problem!
Yeah, it would have been great to stay longer, but, at the same time, it’s really nice to be home.
Emil Bandy said:
If I’m forced to chose between the two, I’d agree with you, deaf is better… though personally I’d prefer neither….
But hey…. If the boot fits….
reformedtngirl said:
I was just teasing.
So do you think y’all will be able to make it down *before* Reformation weekend? ’cause that would be awesome!
Emil Bandy said:
LOL…. I know.. don’t worry..
gotta make sure I put the right kind of emoticon beside my sentences… or else it looks like I don’t get the joke… 
Here’s hope’n!!! I’d *like* for us to come down sometime late spring.. so let’s see what I can do in the way of persuasion…
(but I already have word from my Dad that he’d like to go down to.. so… 
)
reformedtngirl said:
I hope your persuasion skills are unbeatable. We might be planning a fencing “party” once the weather decides to be agreeable, so, if that’s up your alley, you could perhaps use that as leverage.
Emil Bandy said:
Seriously? That’d be all I need for leverage…
Just shoot me an email when ya’ll are doing it and I’ll see if we can come down!!
reformedtngirl said:
Haha! Will do. Any time better or worse than another? I can persuade fairly well myself.
Emil Bandy said:
hm, probably mid spring… though I’ll have to check how much time I can take off, ’cause I only have so much, and I first wanted to come down for Ref. Day, which may mean I can’t come down any other time.. so we’ll see!!
reformedtngirl said:
We were discussing the fencing party last night, and I heard 4-5 weeks from now thrown around a good bit. Just fyi.
Oh, and y’all have to come down either for the fencing party (if we manage to get such a thing organized) or some other time earlier this year, AND for Reformation weekend.
Emil Bandy said:
LOL….. ok Laura…
I’m doubting the fencing party… we have a conference we’re going to in WI. But I’m definitely wanting both sometime this spring and Ref. day. 