An Autumn Ball of a Bygone Era

I contemplated naming this post "A Ball in the Fall" but somehow it didn't seem elegant enough. Anyway...

Once again, my dear friend Libby hosted another Civil War Ball! Valerie, Stephanie, Laura, and I all went up to visit for the weekend, and had a wonderful time.

Thanks to Hannah (and Noah, for filming) for this video of the square dancing we did at the end. Lincoln and Jed are calling. I can't believe how good they are getting! Hannah also has two other videos uploaded: another one of the square dancing, and a contra.
Most of the dances were contras, but occasionally Mr. S. would put on a waltz or a polka.

 Valerie and Laura doing a polka 

 

Andrew and Amanda, Libby and Jed

 

"Wagon-wheeling" (when several squares merge into one big circle)

That's the fun way to do an allemande left!

 Valerie and I - we didn't know we were being photographed!

 

Lexi and Laura

 

 

Valerie, Amanda, and I

 

 

Hannah and Libby

 

 

~ the four sisters ~

 

 

Amanda, Libby, Hannah, Lexi, Jed, Lincoln, Paris

 

 

Little Dagny - at the last ball she was just a baby and Shelby was the one sitting at the piano!

~And a few bonus pictures from the farm~

 

Sunset - see the old school bus?

 Visiting with "North" Dakota (not to be confused with the IL horse we know named Dakota)

 

Aurora smiled for the camera

Laura and Stephanie reading in the living room

 

Aurora and Sierra in the store

 

 Baby Elizabeth

Belles of the Ball

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Wisconsin was the Civil War Ball, hosted by my wonderful friend Libby S. Besides waltzes, there were old-fashioned country dances, called by Mr. S., and some square dancing, called by Libby's brothers.

     ^ The Ladies ^

   ^ (some of) The Gentlemen ^   

Aleks and Amanda

Lexi

 

Laura and I. I made Laura's dress. My dress was borrowed, but just right. Hoops were an interesting adventure.

Me and Libby :)

Anna and Shelby

Cutie-bug Shelby

What I've been up to in a nutshell (nutshells not included).

Update time! Life keeps happening, and there are a lot of posts that I wanted to write but never got to. Whether they ever get revisited or not, here is a quick outline of "what I've been up to".

• Do Hard Things conference in Chicago. Great, fun, lived up to expectations. :) Alex and Brett are great speakers. Read their book!

• Citation Connect '09. I got to go to Awana headquarters for a few days with a group of other Citation Achievers (a Citation Achiever is someone who has finished 10 Awana handbooks). We got a tour of HQ and the building where they handle all the shipping stuff (Penny Lane). We also took a sightseeing trip to Chicago and did some other fun stuff. I learned a lot and especially enjoyed meeting other Awana people from all around the country. Some came from as far as Maryland, Washington state, California, Texas, etc.

• Illinois Square Dance Convention! Ironically, this year it was in Davenport, Iowa! But we didn't mind, because we stayed with our friends who live there, the S. family. Best of all, Megan S. learned to dance just so she could come with us! She was famous that weekend because she learned all of Mainstream in two 4-hour lessons the previous week and did great! (Her brother Jared also came and we pulled him through... he also did great despite the fact he had no idea what was going on, lol!)

Well there you go... my exciting highlights of July. :)

Jerry Story Weekend '09

It was SO. MUCH. FUN! This past Memorial Day weekend, Dad, Chris, Valerie, and I went to the Jerry Story weekend in Dubuque, Iowa. Jerry Story is a phenomenal caller (many say the best, and I won't argue) and the dancing was incredible.
Here are some of my highlights:

• Dancing with our "Wisconsin friends". That's fun no matter whose calling, and this time was no exception. At times, we had 2 whole squares of just kids (OK, my dad was in there too, and even in the square dancing world he's not a kid. But he keeps up.)


• The tip where we did 2 all-girls squares and 1 all-boys square. It was a fast song, too!


• The tip where we were trading like crazy between the two kids' squares!


• The tip when my dad and I was in a square with Bob Asp. We kept the same square for the "Killer Plus", and that was the most successful one I was in all weekend.


• Speaking of which: the Killer Plus dancing. That was my first time doing DBD, so I didn't know what to expect. It was fun!


• The afternoon workshops; learning new stuff. It's not every day that you get to do point-to-point diamonds, Left Coordinate's, and Stretch the Recycle.


• Staying in the same hotel as the WI kids and many other dancers (including Jerry Story!). It's neat seeing familiar people at breakfast.


• Seeing the couple of which the lady is in a wheelchair. We danced with her at the WI convention, and my grandma danced in her square at the Senior Olympics! So it was neat to talk to them some more this time and get to know them better.


• Going to Goodwill and Perkins on Sunday with the WI group.


• Ultimate Frisbee on Saturday night with the light-up Frisbee. Chris was doing great catches and impressing everyone. Ask him about the catch involving the invisible chain-link fence. ;-)


• Alex doing the Chicken Dance. :-P


• The good, good dancing, of course!

So. Much. Fun. Anyone who is reading this and does not square dance needs to learn how to immediately (over the next year, at least), so that you can come next year. :-)