Garden Factory Fun

Just a quick post to share some pics from some fall fun at the Garden Factory. They have lots of great activities for the kids. Dave was out of town a couple weeks ago so it was just the girls. We ran into Emily's friend Kaylee and her mom. We ended up walking around for awhile with them. The older girls were great about including Erin. They had so much fun.

Special Times with Special People

In addition to the Making Strides Walk and my godson Jacob's 2nd birthday party, we also had our cousin Jill and her husband, Stan, visit from Maryland for the weekend. Jill is my mom's first cousin and they have remained close since they were little. Jill, her brother Jack, and her mom, my great-aunt Kay, traveled here for our wedding and all of three of them drove up when my brother Thom passed away. It's been 3 years since we've seen any of Jill's family. In 2005, Jill and her daughter Tricia, Jill's sister Gail and her daughter Katie, and Aunt Kay flew up for a long weekend just a few weeks before Erin was born (on Tricia's birthday~she knew Tricia would be a great person to share a b-day with:-)). Many years ago while visiting DC with friends, I was able to spend time with Jill and Aunt Kay. After visiting Uncle Jay in the hospital, we had dinner with Tricia and headed over to Gail's house. I joked that you would have thought that Queen Elizabeth was visiting the way they "made" over me being there. They feel so strongly about family...and made me feel right at home.

It is always such a wonderful time with our "Maryland Cousins." I met Stan for the first time. He is a genuinely nice, down-to-earth guy. He fits in perfectly with our family. We had dinner at our house for Jill, Stan, my parents, my aunt Sharon, cousin Lisa and her family, and my uncle Dan and his friend Karen. We had a great visit! It was so nice to have everyone together. The girls loved all the action...and attention. These are pics of Jill & Stan, Lisa's son Luke in the shoo-fly, Luke with his big brother Jacob (I love that one), and Luke with his daddy (John). The shoo-fly is about 70 years old~my mom, aunt, and uncle all rode in it when they were little. This was Luke's first ride!Jill had a great time with all the kids. She got right on the floor to play and gave them her undivided attention. I love the pic of Emily reading to Jill. Of course, Emily loves a captive audience!
Because of our busy weekend, we were only able to spend Saturday night with Jill and Stan but we enjoyed every minute of it!

Walking for Lisa

In August, my friend Lisa discovered she had breast cancer. Lisa and I met in college and have been friends for over 15 years. She has lived in Seattle since we finished college but we have remained great friends. Much of her family still lives in this area so she is back here every year and we always get together, sometimes with her friends Claire and Linda, as we did last Christmas. We call each other on our birthdays. I am so fortunate to have her as one of my closest friends.

I contacted Claire and Linda about walking in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk on October 5. All three of us are struggling with being so far away and this was a great way for us to support Lisa in her fight. We also had a dress down day at my school to raise money for the walk. Our school family has been touched by this disease in many ways so they were happy to help. My school is so generous about helping like this.

It came time for the walk...we were ready to go! Then, Claire's daughter came home from school sick that Friday before the race and was sick through the weekend. Claire's husband was out of town on Sunday so she couldn't walk. Then Linda got sick. So, at about 11:30 Saturday night, Dave said that he and the girls would walk with me.

Sunday morning we got everyone dressed in pink, stopped for bagels, and headed to Frontier Field. Claire and Linda were there in spirit. There wouldn't have been a "Team Lisa" without them! Erin rode in the wagon. Emily walked most of the way. That cute pic of her is when she and I were walking hand-in-hand. (It's a little grainy and light because it was from Dave's phone.) We walked the whole 2 1/2 miles! What troopers my girls are! Toward the end of the walk, Emily finally asked for an explanation of why we were walking (I had been waiting~she is a big "why" girl.) I tried to explain it to her in 6-year-old terms. At the end of the walk, Dave and I made a big deal about how we had finished the entire walk~we wanted the girls to know how important what we accomplished really was~we high-fived and cheered. I was quite emotional (okay, I was crying). Dave was tearing up, too (his mom died from breast cancer so this was important to him). Just then, Emily says, "Yay! We saved Lisa!" Out of the mouths of babes as they say. In her 6-year-old mind that is exactly what we did!

The most important part of that day was showing Lisa how important she is to us and that she is not alone in her fight. Love you Lis!