A great journey with my BFF

Well really it was 3 days of walking with my "Breast Friend". I have known Aubrey for 30 years, wow that makes me feel really old! But we have known each other since kindergarten! Taking on the 3Day walk with her was wonderful, for so many reasons but really because we are like an old married couple, we can just tell when there doesn't need to be a conversation, when something is wrong, right, etc.

Aubrey was somehow inspired by me, I don't know how I could inspire anything, I feel like I can barely inspire my kids to go to school and not get in trouble and barely inspire myself to get out of bed! But, she was moved to join me and it made all the difference in the world. The last time I did this walk, I did it by myself in honor of a great friend who was at the time battling the disease. This time I did it in honor of 3 more women who were just diagnosed - 2 family members and another great friend. This disease is just becoming more common place and I am afraid of that, I am afraid that I will have to battle it, or that Sarah will have to battle it. I guess I really feel like I need to do something in the fight against breast cancer, even though it's not really fighting or curing the disease, I guess it's my own way of feeling like I am doing something for these very special women in my life.

So, we fundraised for 4 months all the way up until the day of the walk asking for donations to reach our goal of $2300. We achieved that goal and we took on the 60 miles together, named ourselves the "Breast Friends" which was just as goofy as we are. Mark so kindly pointed out that we haven't changed, "Still dorks" he said as we danced on our way - can't remember what song but it was surely some 80's or 90's dance hit. Yep, we are dorks and we are proud of it! We had a blast, we walked sometimes in silence (partly due to the fact that I didn't have a voice for part of the walk), and sometimes in nonstop chatter, we danced, cheered, moaned and groaned, laughed, and cried quite a bit. Aubs put up with my never ending head cold and nose blowing, and even slept in a tent with me and my illness! We even stopped for a couple well deserved pink margaritas around mile 50, such a great idea, our feet felt pretty great after, our bladders not so much! :)
We ended our journey by dancing our way to the finish line to "Push It", yes Salt n Pepa - couldn't have been any more fitting for us! I can not wait to do this again with my BFF!

Here we are ready to take off on Friday morning, 6:30 am, from the Del Mar fairgrounds.
Mile 11, lunch still pretty pumped up!

20 miles down, some seriously tired feet! We were in bed by 9 if not sooner. This is our tent in the background.
A wonderful pick me up, a visit from the family. I don't have all the pics, but Aubrey's kids made her a sweet poster, which of course made her cry and in turn me too. Jakob and Sarah were so cute cheering everyone on. Jakob's poster said "Three Day Walkers Rock", and Sarah's said "Go Free Day Walkers".
Mile 50, basically my wall, I was really feeling the heaviness in the feet and legs here, but with a little rest and motivation by Aubs, I got back up and kept walking. We turned the corner out of this stop and had to walk uphill, oh man that was tuff stuff but at the top were the well earned margaritas!

Finished!! Yay! It was raining and really windy/cold at this time. We are wearing all of our layers under our shirts to stay warm! What a day we had, rain in the morning, sun, wind and then rain again - kinda crazy - just like us I guess!
I can't forget to say that I really appreciate my family for all their support that went into this, the training walk time, the fundraising on my behalf, the helping me find the right socks, the cheering and making of signs, and putting up with my demands - the last minute things I needed to be delivered to camp, and just taking care of the kids during this event. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I had such an amazing time and just feel really special with all the support I was given.

Trick or Treat

We started our Halloween celebration off a little early, went trick or treating thru Carlsbad Village. It was pretty warm, so Jakob decided not to go as Batman but as a "Zombie Soccer Player", his idea, which turned out quite good I think. We had a lot of people asking what he was, but there was one man who walked up and said, "Yes, great costume, look kids a zombie soccer player!" That made Jakob's day for sure!

Batgirl and the zombie soccer player

The zombie detail up close, including the mark of a soccer ball that probably was the cause of the fatality!

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday, Sarah did her best to scoop out the "guts", but Mommy did most of the dirty work!
Some serious concentration happening on Jakob's design and cutting
Team work on the more complicated parts of Jakob's design
Thru the eye of the jack o lantern to be
Halloween night, getting ready to go trick or treat, Sarah decided not to go as Batgirl, last minute change into a fairy princess on a unicorn - girls will be girls!
The neighborhood superhero gang! We joined our neighbors, Raiden, Ryan and Olivia for trick or treating - the kids made sure not to skip one house! In fact Jakob had to come home to dump out candy so that he could carry his bin! The neighborhood goes all out with decorations, there were tons of kids, super fun!

Sarah got a bit spooked by the scary costumes and houses, so we came home to hand out candy, she wanted to hand it out, until someone came up with a scary costume. Here she is yelling, "Hey guys come and get some candy!"
The loot!

All in all one of the more memorable and enjoyable Halloween's for me. I absolutely loved watching Jakob and his friends get so excited going from house to house, I remember that feeling and loving it! Also watching the boys be brave at super spooky houses was great too, I think they looked brave on the outside with their costumes on, but inside, I know they were pretty scared! Sarah was so afraid to say trick or treat to any stranger, she took to making a weird whining noise at the doorstep, which was pretty hysterical. She eventually got brave at the "not spooky houses" and did actually mutter "trick or treat" and was so proud of herself!
Can't wait until next year!