Walk for the cure

Saturday March 28, 2009
Francis Marion University
Florence, SC 10:00am

We had planned on waking up at 6am in order to get up, get the boys dressed, fed and loaded into the van to make the 90 minute drive to Florence. Instead I woke up abruptly to the shouting of my husband announcing "we MUST get up NOW!" He had apparently turned the alarm off at some point and it was 7am. We had just 30 minutes to feed the kids and be on our way. Thankfully, Darren had gotten most of what we needed for the trip loaded up last night, so it was just a matter of getting the kids ready. We ended up making it in plenty of time and I even got some extra sleep on the ride there. The actual walk didn't start until 11am, so from 9:30-11:00 we got to walk around the campus, which was absolutely beautiful! There were several vendors there, two jump castles, face painting, snow cones, balloon animals and other stuff I've already forgotten. The prewalk ceremony was very nice and included a song sung by a young girl about a mother wishing long life for her child, it was very moving and brought tears to my eyes. The local JROTC presented the colors and then it was time to WALK! We had the option of a 1 mile course or a 3 mile course, so we (of course) went with the 3 mile. The weather was overcast but pleasant for a walk and fortunately didn't start raining until we were on our way back home. It was a great experience and last we heard the walk today raised more then $80,000!!! Team Aidan East surpassed their goal of $100 by 30%! Thanks to everyone to donated! We had a great time and look forward to participating in next years walk. Hopefully some family and friends can join us nextime!

Our first JDRF Walk for the Cure!
Asher is a ball F-A-N-A-T-I-C!!! These guys were awesome (I believe they were part of the university soccer team) they played with and entertained Asher for a good 10 minutes. "WOW" one of the guys kept saying "he's got an arm on him".

Asher in the jump castle

Aidan mid air

Funny story about the balloon. First off (not so funny) when we arrived at the University, Aidan was in a serious funk. Not sure what his deal was, anyway, so while we were waiting for the walk to start we went to get his balloon animal. I asked him to be ready with the animal he wanted... he wanted an elephant. The poor man making the balloon's... bless his heart. He said he hadn't made an elephant in YEARS!!! It took him four trys but he finally delivered the balloon into the hands of my OH SO GRATEFUL son (Um... sarcasm). So, then we had a little "attitude adjusting" to do before we continued on.

I saw these kids walking around with the coolest face paints. I mean their entire faces looked like tigers, or GI-Joe's etc... So, we went to find the face painting booth. Well, aparently there were two different booths. One with the cool face painting, one with um... not as cool face painting. No matter cause Aidan wanted the Batman symbol. Of course, Batman wasn't an option, so he settled for a smiley face. Of course he was VERY GRATEFUL and thanked the girl profusely (NOT)... Attitude adjustment #2.


This was funny too. Those of you who know Aidan know he is the furthest thing from shy. This was part of the pre-ceremony called the T-shirt strut. Members from each team would walk across the stage, say who they were walking for and the name of their team. So, the man with the microphone is asking Aidan who has diabetes, Aidan says he does. Then the man asks the name of our team (Correct answer: Team Aidan) Aidan says, "superman".
Immeadiately following the T-shirt strut. Aidan and Darren striking a superman pose.

The young girl who sang the really touching song... I'd like to get my hands on a copy of those lyrics... hmm.

JROTC

National Anthem. I love this picture of Aidan and Darren together!

Cutting the ribbon, now we can WALK!!!

Tons and Tons of people!!!

Family Picture =)

Walking

Halfway point. They had a fruit and water stand set up for the walkers. This was the perfect time to stop, check Aidan's sugar and make sure he was fine. 132, Perfect! YAY! Aidan was also excited because halfway meant he was now allowed to sit in the stroller. I thought it was important he walked at least the first mile and a half.

Hey! Where'd my banana go? Wait, what, you mean I inhaled it...

So pretty

It was by far the prettiest college campus I have ever been on.

I LOVE this shot!

Signing his name at the finish line, we did it, hurray!!!