Relay For Life

 I was able to participate with my family in Relay For Life this weekend. For those of you who have no idea what Relay For Life is, the website says it best so here you go....
  
What is Relay For Life? 
The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length.

 Our team name was the pink ladies and we had sweet pink tie dye shirts that Alyse made for us to wear. Thanks Buggie!! This year was just a trial run for my family and I. My mom wanted to do this for quite sometime and my sister signed us up.  We had no idea what to expect, but I am so glad I was able to be apart of it all. We were hoping to get my mom's sisters involved with us but they weren't able to make it. We ended up with a smaller group of us then planned but we made it work. It really was a life changing event for me and can't wait to do it next year.

  the fam setting up our camp and waiting to start walking



 We started out on Friday by packing up and heading to the blue sox baseball diamond in Smithfield. We started at noon by taking the first lap as a team. My mom, Cambria, Stella, the boys and myself all took turns walking. Bryant was a even a good sport and wore pink the whole time he was there :)

 Stella even wanted to walk it with us (she only lasted a few minutes)



 In the afternoon they announced that there was a storm that was coming our way. We hurried and put things in the tent and took down the quick shade so it wouldn't blow away.

  Later in the evening Dale brought us dinner and my dad came and they helped walk some laps. It was really cool when they had all the surviors and the caregivers wear certain shirts and had them do a lap together. Its amazing how many people have battled cancer from all different ages.

 A bunch of the teams had fundraisers to help make money for fighting against cancer. There was one team that had a photo booth. Cambria, Dale, and I couldn't pass up dressing up with props and taking a few pictures. 

 Alyse came later to help with walking during the night. It was fun to walk with my sisters and laugh at the band playing and all the people singing karaoke. Me and Cam went to bed around 2 while Alyse and my mom walked. I started walking again at 5:40 and it was freezing and I was super stiff.

 At the end of the relay our team walked at least 83 miles all together and we were feeling every single one of those miles. We all got sunburned and were very tired, but it all made it worth it. I couldn't help but to think about this amazing women the whole time and what she had gone through.....



 My Grandma Ward was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in August of 2004. It had spread through out a lot of her body, mostly through her skull, bones and liver.I can't imagine the pain she felt every single day and me being tired, sore and sunburnt was nothing to compaired to her pain. She was so strong, and always had a smile on even during her chemo. She was always laughing and never let us know how much pain she was in. Through it all she even kept a gratitude journal, were she was grateful for the small things she was able to accomplish, even if that was just getting out of bed for the day.

 She died on April 22, 2005 and still to this day I miss her all the time. We would go to Malad a lot during the summers and on a lot of sundays. We would watch a movie and she would always make us root beer floats and popcorn balls. She stayed with us 2 days a week for the last couple of years while she worked at the temple. I will always miss her hiding her romance novels (that none of us could read cause they aren't good for kids), I will always miss her laugh, I will always miss her cross word puzzles she would do every morning,

I will always miss the curlers she always had in her hair,

I will miss her always standing by the stove always making something,

I will always miss the hours she spent making quilts, and her tongue sticking out when she would make them (I wish the picture was more clear so you could see the tongue sticking out)

 

I will always miss the times we got together for reunions,

I will always miss her being part of all the pictures we take,



Most of all I will always miss just sitting down and talking with her about anything. Love ya Grandma :) 

Thanks family for such a great time this weekend.

4th of July weekend

 I love this time of year where you get to watch the fireworks, hangout with family and friends, have bbq's, and enjoy the nice weather.

 I started the weekend off on Friday by watching the Logan fireworks. My family and I wanted to try a new spot and it was just perfect. The view was great and we didn't have to deal with all the traffic of trying to get home. It still wasn't the same as being up by our normal spot, seeing the fireworks close up and hearing the all the music.



Saturday:

  Natalie and I met up by her house to play tennis. It was super hot outside but we had a blast playing. We later met up to go to the cache valley cruise in parade.

 Natalie has never been before, and we were lucky enough to have great seats, front and center. 

 I was trying to get a lot of the cool cars, but they were going to fast to get a good picture of them. These were the only good ones I got with out being super blurry.

 After seeing the same cars over we decided to grab some dinner. We headed to A&W and it was super packed, I guess that's the place to be after the cruise in. It was fun to see some of the cars that were in the parade parked in the parking lot. I should of taken pictures of them but I didnt. 

Sunday: 

  My family and Dale's parents got together for a BBQ over to Cam and Dale's house. All the food was amazing, everyone did a good job at making it so yummy. I should have taken a picture of all the food, but I was more enjoying the eating part of it then looking at it. I thought it would be fun to make a 4th of July dessert in honor of the 4th of July. It turned out better then I thought it would. I can't take credit for coming up with the idea though I just found it on a website.



   We all ate to much food so we layed around and visited. After a while we played a usual game of sunday croquet.  Dale was the lucky winner of the game.

Stella was even trying to play with us.

all we need is Katie to be in the girls pictures. We missed you guys.



 The boys brought some fireworks and they put on a little fireworks show for all of us. Some fireworks were a little more then what we were bargaining for.



Monday:

 We started the day off by going to the scout breakfast. Bryant was one of the cookers and I couldn't pass up taking a picture with his hair net on.



 Later on in the evening me and a bunch of my friends went up porcupine dam.  Some of them got in the water but I didnt want to play in the freezing water. The campsite we were at had the prettiest water fall so Nat and I hiked up the trial to check it out.

  I had good laugh when I heard Natalie freaking out after she just walked right into a spider web. By the time I got down I was still laughing cause she was trying to shake the cob web off her hands. She finally just pulled it off and had the most discussed look on her face. :)

 We all brought tin foil dinners and while they cooked some people set up their tents to camp over.

 Jake did a good job watching our tin foil dinners

 As Natalie took this picture, she was making a comment on for such a small tent you need 4 people to put it up. Nice work James, Lauren, Matt and Hillary.

  After Natalie and I got done eating we realized we forgot to take a picture of our tin foil dinners. We ended up taking a picture of Matt's food so you can see someones tin foil dinner.



 Once we had the fire built up again, more of our friends showed up. Lauren brought her ukulele and played some music while a few people sang. Of course a camp fire is not the same with out yummy smores. The rest of the time we just sat and visited, and laughed really hard.

 Lauren and Trent singing

* I can't take credit for any of these pictures, Natalie was my great photographer for the night. Thanks Nat.