I-L-L!

This year was the first time that I have ever participated in homecoming at U of I - and it was also Anna's first visit to Chambana! We took Friday off of work because I had to be at rehearsal in the afternoon, so we drove down in the morning to get there with plenty of time. We ate lunch at the new Chick-fil-A that they have at the Union - we took it outside and ate on the quad, because it was a beautiful day! Anna enjoyed that, because I think she was fascinated with watching all the different people. We made our way over to the band building, which for some inexplicable reason Anna seemed to love. There were these metal panels on the floor that she got a kick out of jumping on to make noise; she also liked climbing on the podium. Once music rehearsal started Tim took her to roam around and entertain her. I must say that it was really nice to play in a band again! I got to eat dinner with Tim and Ms. B, and we even caught a bit of the parade on our way to the stadium. Then I had a 3-hour marching rehearsal, and Tim took Anna to Rantoul so that Grammie and Grampy could get her ready for bed. They were nice enough to take care of her for the night so that our goofy schedule would disrupt her sleep (turns out that it didn't work anyway, because she conned them into staying up late!) However, getting up and ready really early the next morning would have bothered her, so it was good that she got to sleep a little later. She ate breakfast with Tim and Grammie and Grampy, then they went to the stadium to watch MI's and Fossil Band's pregame. The game was good too, with the Illini easily winning, but Anna got pretty squirmy (I can't blame her; I'm not a huge fan of football either). After we were all done, we drove up to Cracker Barrel for a delicious, huge meal to finish off the day! I definitely hope I get to do this again! And who knows, maybe Anna will enjoy it more once she's a bit older!