Relay For Life

My family tries to pull together a team for Relay for Life as often as we can. This year Taelor (my niece) wanted to be the captain. It makes me so happy to see her wanting to make a difference at her age. It's so important to get kids to understand that there are more important things in life than going to the mall. Or seeing the latest movie. Sometimes, you've got to give up your time to help an important cause. I don't think she fully realized what she was getting herself into. It was so much more work that she thought it would be. But she pulled together a really big team and did a really great job. It was really cool to see her feeling a sense of accomplishment. And although we didn't make that much money to contribute, like we always say.. it's still that much more than they had before. Every penny makes a difference.

Of course this was Addison's first time doing anything like this. I hope I can instill in her the importance of helping others and doing your part to make the world a better place. Sounds so cheesy, but it's really important to me that she grows up to be a good person, with a big heart. Where else can we start but at the beginning?

Taelor, our team captain, is in the green shirt.

One of the team's fundraiser's was to have people get their picture taken with 'Colonel Sanders'

So sad.. it was crazy windy and a whole bunch of the balloons flew away. when it was first up it was a big rainbow of balloons.

"auntie em.. auntie em.."

haha.. plus.. the pot of gold.

also our team name was 'the skittle crew'

Very creative Taelor, I LOVED it!

Our Team Motto

Another team's fundraiser was selling dreamcatcher's. So of course I had to buy one for Addison.

Joshua's mom had Thyroid cancer and is a SURVIVOR!

My great grandma Kinghorn survived Breast cancer twice, and finally died from cancer that had spread.

Grandpa Loveland died from cancer. Not sure what kind, he died before I was born.

My uncle Jim died after a long battle with Lukemia.

This is everyone that stayed until the ending ceremony.

Usually my favorite part of the relay is the early hours of the morning, when it's completely dark outside with the exception of the luminaries lit up around the track. When you are walking completely by yourself and you feel like you could drop at any moment. It's the feeling you get when you force yourself to keep going, despite how tired and sore and cold you are because you realize that this is nothing compared to what people fighting cancer are going through every day. It's extremely humbling and puts a lot of things in perspective for me.

This year, I did not stay the whole night. I have not yet left Addison for a whole night, and it was way too cold to keep her there. So I went home for a few hours and went back. So this year, a few different parts were my favorite. One was when it got dark, they had a small ceremony with a slideshow, and afterwards they played amazing grace on the bagpipes, and had everyone walk around the track together in complete silence. The other was after the ending ceremony. They played Melissa Etheridge's song 'I Run for Life' and everyone that was left walked around the track one last time. It always feels so cool to be a part of something so much bigger than yourself. I can't wait until next year.