After making the trip to Peoria, Illinois on Friday for Steve's great-niece's wedding this weekend, we had the chance to visit and catch up with his family. After driving most of the day, we arrived at Steve's mom's apartment. We unpacked and the three of us took off for Avanti's Italian Restaurant to meet Steve's brother and his wife...Doug and Debi. Yummy Italian bread and some of the best spaghetti ever - again, brought back memories of bringing the kids here every time we came to Peoria and ALWAYS getting loaves of their bread to go. (some of it never made it all the way back to Arkansas, of course) It seemed like we were all trying to talk at once because we had so much to talk about now that they have been to Arkansas recently for Mary Beth's wedding and we were learning about Logan's wreck with a school bus while hitting ice on the street. So much news!
The next morning we got up and packed up to drive to Springfield, which is about an hour away. Lorraine, Steve's mother, rode with us when we left Peoria after lunch. I actually "let" Steve drive my car while I took a little snooze in the back. Actually, it was because I thought he and his mother could use some "quality time" together. The guests were all staying at the Hilton, where the reception was being held. Steve and I just had to change clothes and then we were ready to go. The wedding started at 4:00, so we planned to leave at 3:20 so we'd have time to get there. We really weren't worried about directions because we have "Madame Garmin," as we call our GPS system. It has never failed us. Until Saturday. We got in the car and plugged in the address for the church....nothing. So Steve put in the name of the church and searched that way....nothing. We knew it was on Second Street so we got on it and headed out. The address was 4500, and we were only in the 700 block!!!! Oh my goodness!! My heart began to race a bit at this point and it was the first time I realized and the thought had even crossed my mind that the 89 year old lady in the front seat of my car was the GREAT GRANDMOTHER of the bride and would be needing to be escorted in. It apparently had not even occurred to Lorraine of Steve at this point and I certainly was not going to mention it!! Heavens!
Second Street ended two different times and we diverted around it. One time we ended up in a fenced parking lot with no exit!!! Finally, we made our way to a busier street and went in that direction. We had the directions from the invitation for getting from the church TO the reception, but not from the reception (hotel) to the church. Bad planning on our part!! As we raced through the streets doing way over the speed limit, we only knew the name of one street close to the church and finally came to it at about 3:50. We raced down it until we hit Second Street and drove through the 30 mph zone like it was the interstate! Thank goodness things had not gotten started and Steve got his mother in just on time.
The wedding was splendid and she was so lovely. Brittany looked so very happy. Afterwards when we were leaving to go back to the hotel for the reception, we saw a police car (probably looking for that speeding EOS from earlier in the day) and it said the name of a different town on it. So THAT was the reason Garmin wasn't picking up that address or church - it wasn't really still in Springfield, even though it runs right into it. Ahah!!! The reception was decorated in a winter wonderland theme with silver and turquoise, with a seated dinner for 300 guests. It was really nice and so much fun. 
Parents of the bride: Vikki and Chris Burbridge, now living in Dallas.
Aaron takes his mom, Roz, for a spin around the dance floor.
Steve enjoying visiting with his nephew, Pat, and niece, Megan.
The bride enjoys taking a dance with the most handsome and mature man at the reception, her cousin (Pat's son), Caden.
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