Congratulations Pat and Rachel!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to take a road trip with some friends to Patrick's wedding.




Charlie

Chris

Jerelyn










Co-P

Michael











Chris and Jerelyn fixed up an abundance of food for the entire crew. Oddly, they looked just like the cold cuts we had at their wedding ...?




For the hundredth time, I like new things. So we took a new (to me) route toward Chicago to make it to Sawyer, Michigan. Jerelyn's home town of Gridley has two gas stations, an AC church and some large farm buildings. But there are signs of booming growth in the local economy...a brand new car wash.

We left early enough to spend some time getting ready at a house that the Deutch clan was staying at for the weekend. The place was in an interesting neighborhood.







Trey party in the pew.


Steve and Elise gotta love the fact that there's never a shortage of people to take the kid off their hands.






As we broke out of Peoria, guess what Michael all of a sudden realized was missing...

Who is Pat anyway? What originally attracted me to the group of friends I hung out with at church was the friendly engaging and mature attitudes of guys like Patrick, Rodney, Jon and others. I stick to my friends like glue now, but back then, I wouldn't have been plugged in or have any of these friends if guys like Jon (best man below) hadn't stuck with me and continually sought out ways to encourage and get to know me. Well, times they change, and people get married. Pat is the last of the original guys I knew to be taken by marriage. He's been studying down at Dallas Theological Seminary for a couple of years now, so we've been missing him for a while already.


The Hood Men



Mike and I called dibs on Trey so that Kari couldn't use the "I'm holding a baby" excuse for not dancing, like usual. She was just left with "I don't wanna" like the rest of us. Trey learned all kinds of things being around uncle Mike and Kevin. How to pick a wine and pick on a girl.








The Lueken kids were a little surprised at the real deal being served on the table.






The Deutch man is a dancing fool. At Rodney's wedding, it made me so frustrated to see that he could make dorky dancing cool. It's still just dorky when I do it. After crazy time with the kids, Momma had to break in.





What's Madison mad at me for now? Not dancing. Back off! (don't hurt me)


With Gridley's rock bottom gas prices (at the time), Chris' skills got us back there with a little left to take advantage. Thanks for driving Chris!