Relay for Life 2011

Alrighty, it's about time I blog and share about our Relay for Life event that was last Saturday! If you're a facebook fan, you saw some pictures in our photo albums. 

Here's the story:

Friday 2pm - Show up to begin set up. My SIL, oldest daughter and I set up our 2 canopies and large table as well as the easel. It was the 1st year we set up early and considering how long it still took to set up everything on Saturday, it was good that we had that head start.

Saturday 8:30ish am - We finally make it to finish setting up. My goal had been 8am, but we had company until later on Friday night so didn't get to bed until 1am. When you're planning on staying up for 24 hours at Relay, it's best to get more than 6 hours of sleep the night before. :o) I'll be honest in that I was stressing a wee bit about getting everything set up. It wasn't going as fast as I had it in my head and it had rained the night before so there was some drying out to be done, but we did it and it all turned out great!

Our campsite after set up at the beginning of Relay

Highlights:

My 15yo walked 15 miles! One mile for each year! She didn't plan it that way and had no intention of walking that much, but wanted to beat her Aunt (who clocked in an impressive 10 miles herself!) and then was in the groove.

Frito Lay Team who handed out free snacks all day and NIGHT! I know because for each lap my 15yo did, she grabbed more praline pecans. She now has enough to last her through next school year! 

Silent Auction where we made a whopping $341! Thanks so much to our sponsors for that! It helped so much that we're just $216 away from our goal of $1500!

Bounce and Battle for $10 all day bounce bracelets. My 5yo, 10yo and 12yo were highly entertained and used up so much energy!

Luminaria ceremony. It's just so touching to see all those lit luminarias!

One of our main reasons for Relaying!

After the Luminaria Ceremony my kids started dropping like flies. The 5yo gave a valiant effort to stay awake, but crashed by the end of the ceremony. She slept in the little tent with Daddy. My SIL (who never ceases to amaze me!) slept with 2 camp chairs put together. The 12yo was next followed by the 10yo who were "resting their eyes" on the sleeping bags on the ground. 

Beks and I took the night shift. We alternated walking (ok I alternated, she was still going for 15mi!) and resting. At 5am we judged the theme lap costumes. At 6am, the umbrella lap started and with that came the RAIN! It deserves all caps because it would end up being a record rainfall for the date!

See this green tarp. My wonderful hubby thought to put this up the day before in case of rain or sun. I'm so glad he did! Although, see that child on the end? When the water pooled on top of the tarp, we lifted it up to move the water off and created a waterfall which landed on said child. I always wondered what it would be like to wake someone up by throwing a bucket of cold water on them. I now know and it's not pretty! :o)

Anyway, a little rain didn't dampen our Relay spirit and at 6:30am I joined a small group on the track for Zumba. It was so much fun to say I did Zumba in the rain! My hubby took some video. Enjoy!

We started to pack up the smaller items as our campsite was starting to resemble a lake and the 3 younger kids were still so tired. We decided they could go home in the 1st round and go back to sleep.

Our campsite on Sunday Morning after the rain began!

These are some of the Luminarias after the rain got to them. I think it's a great symbolization of how cancer can get us down for a little while, but we'll never give up. Some of these luminaria's candles were still burning even after all that rain!

We proceeded to our closing ceremony and final lap where we released balloons that carried our pledges to continue to Relay to fight cancer!

It was a great Relay event and we're already planning for next year!