3 Day Walk

My journey started as soon as I agreed to walk. Once I started sharing with others about my quest I received an overwhelming response from family, friends, and strangers! It was eye opening to see so many people willing to give even when times are hard for most people to give. There were a few reasons I wanted to walk: first for my mom, she never let the cancer slow her down. She is my rock. Second is for all those others in my life that have been exposed to cancer of some kind. I hate that they had to have it but I love that they fought it and continue to fight it! Third is for my girls. My hope is that there is an end to breast cancer so they never have to worry about that fight. My favorite sign during the walk was a little girl sitting by a sign that said "Find a cure before I grow boobies" It was sweet and sad at the same time.



Here are the pictures from the event in somewhat of an order...

This was about 6:30 in the morning at opening ceremony.

We started our walk downtown by the Rock Hall. It was a beautiful morning :)The support on the walk was incredible. These people hung pink bras. When it was hot they had water, candy, and cold paper towels for us. Some even had sprinklers set out so we could cool off. AhhhhhhhThis was our first lunch stop on Friday. We were Rock Stars!This is Maddie waiting for Mom at one of the cheer stations.Yea, our mommy made it! I loved the sign they made for me. It was very sweet. We LOVED to see the Welcome to Westlake sign because they meant we were close to camp and almost done for the day!This is Lisa and I on our firs day. She and I also shared a tent. (no comment)First Day DONE!

You can't see it on our faces but we are in a lot of pain in this picture :(

After we met up with "Lathy"

(that's what we called Liz and Kathy because they walked so much faster than we did so we gave them a nickname. you do a lot of weird things when you walk 60 miles)

They had massage chairs which felt amazing after 22 miles of walking.

This is day 2! The medical tent was very busy. Everyone was tending to their blisters.This was day 2 at a cheer station.This is Jerry! He is all over the route cheering the walkers on. He is never by anyone else (like at a cheer station) and he is always hiding. Its hard to explain: he doesn't hide from you just in places you can't see until your close to him. He was there EVERYDAY about 3 times a day or more, just cheering us on. Lisa gave him a high kick and he called her a show off. It was funny! He was something to look forward to and we always got excited to see Jerry. We had to get a picture with him! What a great supporter, we would love to know his story....Day 2 DONE! another 22 miles When we would get back to camp we would take a picture then crash in the grass for about 20 min. Just enjoying the fact that we didn't have to walk any more! Then we would hobble over to dinner, then hobble over to showers, then hobble back to dinner tent where they would have entertainment for us each night. Here are the girls just hanging out with our feet up.Liz was popping her blisters! Saturday night it was really nice out so we were just hanging out by our tents chatting about what we saw the last couple of days and the "3dayisms" we came up with on our walk.Here we come Day 3! This is the whole team ready to walk on day 3.My mom and my sister came to a cheer station Sunday morning!

Love you guys, thanks for all your support.WE DID IT!

another 16 miles

(that was a piece of cake)After we finish they make you wait until all the walkers come in and then its time for closing ceremonies to begin. This is the team chillin' in the grass.Here we are (with our hands up) walking into the closing ceremony

One of the neatest moments during the ceremony is when they bring out the survivors who walked. All the walkers hold up a shoe for them. It is an amazing feeling to be a part of that!

Mike was my biggest fan and I want to thank him for having confidence in me and supporting me through the whole process. He is my best friend.Time to take my girls and go home! Until next year...

Columbus Zoo

We took the girls to Columbus Zoo and Waterpark in July. The day we went to the waterpark it was like 95 degrees. Almost too hot! We all had lots of fun. I think Liv's favorite part was the big yellow slide. I can't even count how many times she went up and down that thing! Mike took Maddie to a toddler area that she loved. Everything was just her size and she loved going down the slides and climbing on top of everything in the water. It was Christmas in July so in the first picture you can kind of see snow falling. They had snow machines that would kick out snow every once and awhile. It was cute.

This is actually from the zoo! There was a playground the girls ran around on for awhile. The theme was bugs so there were caterpillars to climb IN and slide down.

another zoo pic

This was the toddler area..

Maddie loved the little slides This whale is actually a slide, you come out of his mouth.

This was another favorite of Livi's. She crossed a few times, Maddie tried but needed mama's help :)

Go Liv!

The Big Yellow Slide!

Daddy and Maddie going down together!

Mike and the girls gettin ready to go...

It was a HOT, HOT day and even with sunscreen we got baked!

Sunday we woke up to rain :( We thought our day at the zoo might be ruined but after breakfast and a quick shower it started to clear up so we headed out. It turned out to be perfect because it was overcast and after being in the sun all day Saturday we were glad the sun was hiding. The first picture is from the polar bear exhibit. This is new this year and was awesome! We got to watch the bears play in the water, then they have an underwater exhibit where you can watch them swim. They were playing and they actually stand on the bubble that you are in so it is really neat to see.

What kind of bear are you?

Mike and I loved this guy!

He seems really smart, like an old man on a mountain with lots of wisdom.

We have lots of pictures on these statues. They are all over the park but just too many to put on the blog. This was the polar bear one (obvious). Notice Olivia is putting her shades on the bear. She did that with just about every statue we did pictures with.

Liv hangin out with the monkey. She was actually afraid when it came close to her but then she moved in a little closer to check him out. The minute he would move she would jump down from the ledge.

Hanging out on a stink flower! Phew, whats that smell?

This was my favorite exhibit! The boat ride. We had a boat to ourselves, which was nice and it takes you around the Asia exhibits. You float along and pass by the animal exhibits. There are tunnels to go in and as you can see there is tall grass all along the ride on either side. My only problem with the ride is it was too short! Neat way to see the zoo.

We went to feed the birds. I was hoping the girls would get a bird on their hands but as soon as Mike walked into the cage two or three landed close and started eating. It was really hard to pass it on to the girls. Livi tried but one of the birds bit her finger. Needless to say that was enough for both of them.

This was a monkey exhibit. There was a group of them walking around and one of them had a baby so the girls like watching the baby climb around his mama and play.