Our last day of ThornhillFest 2008 will go down in ThornhillFest history as one of the best closing nights ever! I woke up at around 10am to finishing the Day 6 blog and to get ready for a reunion picnic of old Yammers (young adult ministry prior to 2007) before heading out to Barrington. I wasn't the first to arrive, but apparently, Julie Notariano arrived at 3pm and was there for 15 minutes. Did anyone recall seeing her? The things we do to get perfect attendance at ThornhillFest...Upon a very warm welcome from Thornhill family, Andrew and I quickly debriefed the list of recipients for the perfect attendance award. First time appearances were made by Jeremy Frazier, Christina Trina, and Lisa Wells. The food consisted of little Latin fusion finger food. The guacamole was very yummy. There were 3 different flavors of
Jamba Juice for Fest guests to slurp on. Mariam presented a plethora of
Wrigley gum to Andrew which was enthusiastically accepted. Tony and I talked about our marathon training schedules and how they had been affected by ThornhillFest. I plan on running the
Honolulu Marathon in December, Lord willing. We discussed our training methods of which I rely on
Hal Higdon for. Tony and Andrew had a little
Russian chat time and we all found out that the
Romanian language has more of an Italian sound. Al had been working on his croquet skills earlier. I think he may be able to school Julie and Nick if they show up.
Marc and Katie returned with Lydia Revoredo who was sportin' a pretty pink hat. The Swanson's also returned with their sweet daughter Sophia. In 2007, we ended with a bang as Christina Minervino rushed to find us the perfect mariachi band. Ending still with a little Latin flair, Island Dreams played
salsa and
cha cha music with a little hint of the Caribbean. Love the sound of the steel drums! They played a nice little
bossa nova version of the "
Girl from Ipamena." After that song, the MEGA dance party began! First to hit the grass covered dance floor were Jeremy Frazier and I. Soon to follow were Christina Minervino, Julissa Torres, and Tony Halaby. And let's not forget about John Dewane! He is definitely our most improved dancer who picks up dance moves by relating it to
martial arts. Whatever works! I once taught a 7 ft guy how to do the
merengue and told him to think of it as if he was dribbling a basketball. It worked! Only at ThornhillFest would there be so many handsome, young men to dance with. Todd Ackland got into the swing of things by dancing with salsa/swing fusion moves with both Heather Ahn, Jody Nilsen, and Karen Featheringill. Love that Karen, she is hardcore. The band was only suppose to play until 10pm but their set was extended until 11pm! More first time appearances were made by the Gresziak's, Aaron Wardrip, Kim and Jamil Webster, Shaun Polk, John Hodel, Tara
Brooks, Dan Blaufus, Amy Weiner, and Ziggy Ziegenbein. Stephanie Minervino and I gave one last tribute to "the captain." Brad introduced me to some cool peeps from Harvest Elgin and Josh Dresser is now my new
Facebook friend. Josh's got a rockin' profile pic! Everyone's attention was on Andrew as he began to give out the very thoughtfull perfect attendance awards for Thornhillfest 2008. Some of those who made the list were Karen, Christina, Margie and Mariam. Is Mariam destined to be a future Thornhill? Then the double duty 2 year 14 day perfect attendance awards were given. Julie received some kind of money kit, Tom received a 3 piece collection of different
Catholic saints, Patrick received
James Earl Jones recites the bible on CD and I received the most awesomest thing only true
Jedi knights would be jealous of...a
lightsaber! This was soooo much better than the
Oscars:) Jody brought some animal guests
named Sasha and Harley. I gave a recap of the week to John and Shaun as best as I could and knew they were wondering what kept them from coming earlier that week. We were reminded that Karen likes to drink
Mello Yello and in return, I serenaded her with the
song of that same name. Pyary has begun to plan Sebastian Fest which will be a direct cousin of ThornhillFest. HEATHER AHN! There I said it. Have to mention her name at least once in the blog. HEATHER AHN! Ha, I said it again:) Tom Akert posed for a pic with his "saints" and hopefully we won't see him burying St. Joe anytime soon. Jason AB and Julie exchanged a memo and arrived to ThornhillFest in formal attire. Dot, who was at another NASCAR race, hauled it to ThornhillFest and made it by 11:59pm to collect on her perfect attendance award. Somehow, we didn't keep track of Eric's attendance.
Buffalo Gove and
Rolling Meadows High School were represented. Brad finally saw the sign for the bathroom. He is not 100% Japanese as some of you may have believed but, Eric Wang is definitely 100% MexicAsian. At nights end, there was a consipracy to throw Andrew in the pool, Patrick was "on fire" and a
School of Rock hardcore performance was given. You know you're not hardcore,
unless you live hardcore...ain't that right Andrew? As we were cleaning up, I was thinking about the detoxing I will be doing and the mileage I will be running to get back on track with marathon training. The last of the Fest attendees excited the Thornhill Barrington manor close to 3am. All that experienced ThornhillFest took away memories of a time they will never forget. Many of us came and reunited with old friends. Several of us were introduced and made new friends. Some of us received so many mosquito bites that next year we might consider wearing a
Hazmat jumpsuit. Only a few stayed up way past midnight...daily. But no matter what your experience was, I'm sure it was an experience worth having. Thank you all for reading this blog! Your enthusiasm helped motivate me to write at the wee hours of the morning. I hope that I have captured this year's Fest in a way that you will remember always. To the amazing Thornhill family, I thank you immensely for your friendship which has been such a blessing to me over the past few years. I will continue to keep all of you in my prayers and hope that the Lord will continue to place opportunities for us to cherish in the future as we continue to walk in His ways.
Our last day of ThornhillFest 2008 will go down in ThornhillFest history as one of the best closing nights ever! I woke up at around 10am to finishing the Day 6 blog and to get ready for a reunion picnic of old Yammers (young adult ministry prior to 2007) before heading out to Barrington. I wasn't the first to arrive, but apparently, Julie Notariano arrived at 3pm and was there for 15 minutes. Did anyone recall seeing her? The things we do to get perfect attendance at ThornhillFest...Upon a very warm welcome from Thornhill family, Andrew and I quickly debriefed the list of recipients for the perfect attendance award. First time appearances were made by Jeremy Frazier, Christina Trina, and Lisa Wells. The food consisted of little Latin fusion finger food. The guacamole was very yummy. There were 3 different flavors of Jamba Juice for Fest guests to slurp on. Mariam presented a plethora of Wrigley gum to Andrew which was enthusiastically accepted. Tony and I talked about our marathon training schedules and how they had been affected by ThornhillFest. I plan on running the Honolulu Marathon in December, Lord willing. We discussed our training methods of which I rely on Hal Higdon for. Tony and Andrew had a little Russian chat time and we all found out that the Romanian language has more of an Italian sound. Al had been working on his croquet skills earlier. I think he may be able to school Julie and Nick if they show up. 
Marc and Katie returned with Lydia Revoredo who was sportin' a pretty pink hat. The Swanson's also returned with their sweet daughter Sophia. In 2007, we ended with a bang as Christina Minervino rushed to find us the perfect mariachi band. Ending still with a little Latin flair, Island Dreams played salsa and cha cha music with a little hint of the Caribbean. Love the sound of the steel drums! They played a nice little bossa nova version of the "Girl from Ipamena." After that song, the MEGA dance party began! First to hit the grass covered dance floor were Jeremy Frazier and I. Soon to follow were Christina Minervino, Julissa Torres, and Tony Halaby. And let's not forget about John Dewane! He is definitely our most improved dancer who picks up dance moves by relating it to martial arts. Whatever works! I once taught a 7 ft guy how to do the merengue and told him to think of it as if he was dribbling a basketball. It worked! Only at ThornhillFest would there be so many handsome, young men to dance with. Todd Ackland got into the swing of things by dancing with salsa/swing fusion moves with both Heather Ahn, Jody Nilsen, and Karen Featheringill. Love that Karen, she is hardcore. The band was only suppose to play until 10pm but their set was extended until 11pm! More first time appearances were made by the Gresziak's, Aaron Wardrip, Kim and Jamil Webster, Shaun Polk, John Hodel, Tara 
Brooks, Dan Blaufus, Amy Weiner, and Ziggy Ziegenbein. Stephanie Minervino and I gave one last tribute to "the captain." Brad introduced me to some cool peeps from Harvest Elgin and Josh Dresser is now my new Facebook friend. Josh's got a rockin' profile pic! Everyone's attention was on Andrew as he began to give out the very thoughtfull perfect attendance awards for Thornhillfest 2008. Some of those who made the list were Karen, Christina, Margie and Mariam. Is Mariam destined to be a future Thornhill? Then the double duty 2 year 14 day perfect attendance awards were given. Julie received some kind of money kit, Tom received a 3 piece collection of different Catholic saints, Patrick received James Earl Jones recites the bible on CD and I received the most awesomest thing only true Jedi knights would be jealous of...a lightsaber! This was soooo much better than the Oscars:) Jody brought some animal guests 
named Sasha and Harley. I gave a recap of the week to John and Shaun as best as I could and knew they were wondering what kept them from coming earlier that week. We were reminded that Karen likes to drink Mello Yello and in return, I serenaded her with the song of that same name. Pyary has begun to plan Sebastian Fest which will be a direct cousin of ThornhillFest. HEATHER AHN! There I said it. Have to mention her name at least once in the blog. HEATHER AHN! Ha, I said it again:) Tom Akert posed for a pic with his "saints" and hopefully we won't see him burying St. Joe anytime soon. Jason AB and Julie exchanged a memo and arrived to ThornhillFest in formal attire. Dot, who was at another NASCAR race, hauled it to ThornhillFest and made it by 11:59pm to collect on her perfect attendance award. Somehow, we didn't keep track of Eric's attendance. Buffalo Gove and Rolling Meadows High School were represented. Brad finally saw the sign for the bathroom. He is not 100% Japanese as some of you may have believed but, Eric Wang is definitely 100% MexicAsian. At nights end, there was a consipracy to throw Andrew in the pool, Patrick was "on fire" and a School of Rock hardcore performance was given. You know you're not hardcore, 
unless you live hardcore...ain't that right Andrew? As we were cleaning up, I was thinking about the detoxing I will be doing and the mileage I will be running to get back on track with marathon training. The last of the Fest attendees excited the Thornhill Barrington manor close to 3am. All that experienced ThornhillFest took away memories of a time they will never forget. Many of us came and reunited with old friends. Several of us were introduced and made new friends. Some of us received so many mosquito bites that next year we might consider wearing a Hazmat jumpsuit. Only a few stayed up way past midnight...daily. But no matter what your experience was, I'm sure it was an experience worth having. Thank you all for reading this blog! Your enthusiasm helped motivate me to write at the wee hours of the morning. I hope that I have captured this year's Fest in a way that you will remember always. To the amazing Thornhill family, I thank you immensely for your friendship which has been such a blessing to me over the past few years. I will continue to keep all of you in my prayers and hope that the Lord will continue to place opportunities for us to cherish in the future as we continue to walk in His ways.
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