Gathering Illinois Friends and Family

A Motley Crue indeed!

Maggie and I were honored, when my brother Rick offered to let us have a party at his house while we were home in Illinois. We thought our trip home would be a great time to gather all of our friends and family in one place and celebrate our wedding all over again. We had a great time, even though it was 85 degrees with 80% humidity (Back home it was a sweltering 10 degrees with snow on the ground!) I haven't sweat that much since I lived in Illinois!

Sweaty boy and Maggie

Our family members who braved the ridiculous heat were, my brothers Jim and Rick and their families, including my sisters-in-law Pama and Nancy and niece Amanda and nephew Tim. Nephews Zach and Greg were not able to join us unfortunately. My Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy joined us, as did my Uncle Bob and Aunt Marilyn. My adopted family member Kimma, and her sister and brother-in-law Shawn and Aaron joined us as well.

Jim, Nancy, Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom

Aunt Marilyn, Maggie and Uncle Bob

Uncle Tom and Aunt Nancy

Friends came from all over. His Holiness, Pope Bite Me IV, visited from St. Louis. My best friend Jeff and his wife Belinda brought their kids Roan and Teaghan from Chicago. Bill and Carmen also came down from Chicago. Mike and Christie came from Champaign with their kids Will and Emma. Also from Champaign were Barb and Rod. Barb is still my favorite boss of all time! It was great to see the C/U crew.

Barb and Rod

Sandy and Alyce

Rod and Francie

Sandy and Raymond

Pope, holding court

Jeff and Pete

Our Springfield friends included, Pete sans his wife and twin girls, Blake and Jenny came with their kids Evan and Annabelle, Lori and Steve brought Ben and Emily and Amy and Steve came with Leanna and Eric. Illinois State Library friends were also in attendance. "Professor" Arlyn, Sandy, Francie, Raymond, Alyce, and Tom. My former reference department supervisor and current Director of the Illinois State Library Anne brought her son Thomas.
Amy, Lori and "The Steves"

Carmen, Bill, Mike and Belinda

With all of the children at the party, Maggie and I started to feel a little left out without our Alma.

Rick and Pama's perfect Golden Retriever, Sarah

We didn’t get to spend enough time with folks. It’s the curse of having a big party. I just wanted sit down with everyone and say. “So what’s been happening in your life?” “How have you been?” “How do you people handle this heat? In October?!” We just couldn’t do it. It was too busy. For that I apologize. I urged all of our guests to come to Montana. We can have those conversations sitting on the sun porch at 600 Main Street.

Georgetown Lake and Mt. Haggin

My brothers and I followed Maggie and Kathy to Philipsburg to go candy shopping the day after the wedding. BTW: The Sweet Palace and 7 Gables Restaurant (Best damn chicken in the state) at Georgetown Lake is a must stop for all Anaconda visitors. Bring plenty of insulin. It was a snowy trip through the Anaconda Range. As I said earlier, we had three inches on the ground in Anaconda and we were headed up about another 1000 ft or so. Snow at Georgetwon was beautiful. I desperately wanted my brothers to see some wildlife. Moose preferably. They were nowhere to be seen. But we did catch a glimpse of a rather thoughtful looking Great Grey. My brother got a pretty good shot of it...

What do you think?

Rick and Jim and Kathy all left the next day. I recommended a road to the boys. I think they took it because this view of Mt. Haggin is from that road. Pretty spectacular snow for September 2.