This weekend brought a close to the reign of three amazing ladies and ushered in a new group of bright, beautiful prospectives for Mrs. America in downtown St. Paul, MN at the elegant Fitzgerald Theater. I enjoyed a weekend of catching up and competition watching with dear sister queens, Loni, Heather, Coral, and a surprise of Julie, Mrs. NC, who was one of the judges for the pageant, as well as meeting and re-acquainting with many, many other pageant veterans.
There was a wonderful reunion with another Danville-ite, Jessica Normile, who was also an IL MAO local vet "back in the day" with me, and part of the pageant entertainment for the evening, so Loni, she and I were kind of in our own little world at times, reminiscing about home...I wish we all didn't live so far away from each other. I laughed so hard all weekend long!
I was picked up from the airport by Loni's husband, Tim, and we arrived at the hotel to meet up with Loni, Coral, Holly Ernst (a former Mrs. MN and one of my pageant coaches), and many other formers, staff, and of course Pageant Directors, Mr. and Mrs. Schway. Loni and Tim then set us up for an evening at WA Frost's, which on the inside looks like Cynthia's down in Paducah - so I had a moment thinking about trips down there with Julie! - and the outside looks like you're in another country - SO beautiful! Heather (MN) and her husband joined us along with Jessi and her husband Doug, as well as Laura Diers (IA '08), who had me in stitches - loved meeting her!
Saturday was laid back with a visit to the Mall of America - more memories preparing for this journey of Mrs. IL - and then off to get ready for the pageant itself. What a production!!! The MN Viking Cheerleaders, live band, music stylings by Jessi, an unbelievable dance performance by the "Larkin Dad's" of the Larkin Dance Studio (they performed their own rendition of "Thriller", so immediately I was tickled pink, but these guys could move! One kept doing center split-leaps!!!), and a very entertaining shtick between Carl and Faith Schway every so often were just some of the highlights. By the end, new ladies were crowned and we were off to celebrate at a lovely buffet.
Sunday was a good morning of last minute good-byes at breakfast, and Tim and Loni taking me back to the airport. This has been one of the best weekends of my reign as Mrs. Illinois and I will never forget it.
Special thanks to Loni - there are not enough words to express my gratitude for the friendship regained through this experience with you - thank you for taking such good care of me this weekend. To you and Tim both, for driving, dinner, the beautiful gifts, everything, thank you! To Jessi and Doug - so good to get reacquainted again - thank you for driving, lending your beautiful voice, and your generosity to Loni and me. To all of my sister queens; it was so good to see you and I am so very, very proud of you. Thank you for sharing your weekend with me (Heather, thank you for the bag - you are SO thoughtful!). Holly, it was so good to see you again. Thank you for all your kindness and generosity to me (yes, I'm using that word a lot in this installment because that was HUGE from so many people this weekend!) To the Schways and staff of IA, MN, WI and GA; thank you for your generosity as well. Carl and Faith, thank you for including me in so much, providing my ticket, and offering to take me to the airport, and thank you, Robin, for the sweet bag of gifts. Thank you all for taking me in as one of your own this weekend - it means so very much and it was terrifc getting to see your pageant!
I'll have a few posts for pictures - Enjoy!
First night in and straight from the airport to meet up with Loni and everyone,some shots of the hotel, and part of our group at WA Frost - we're missing Jessi, and Heather and their hubbies!
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