The Buddy Walk was once again a huge success. Our "Lexi Lou's Whos" gathered
at Celebration Plaza of White River State Park (next to the Zoo) to support Down
Syndrome Indiana. Our little Lexi was one happy little girl!!!
Lexi's family arrived at the park early to greet friends and relatives
as they arrived. It gave Alexis a chance to run and run and she
loved the freedom.
"This is the life!!!!!"
People gather, family and friends visit and we wait for the walk to begin.
Lexi loves the Grinch on her daddy's shirt.
"Let's go see who we can find!"
Layla and Blake are ready!
Layla, Brent, Marley and Jen
Friends Susan (who had just flown in from a trip to Denver) and her daughter
Lacey with Ron and Paula. Paula, Kendra & Susan love to walk together
since they are neighbors.
Lexi LOVES her Uncle Ron (who shouldn't be holding her
since he is recovering from back spasms!!! but
he LOVES his Lexi Lou!!!)
Lexi loves her Uncle Brent and Layla and Marley too!!!
" Hi Marley!"
Layla loves her little cousin soooo much!
PopPop "Jims" and Gramma Connie have arrived. Huuuuuug!
We are just about ready to begin the walk!
GET READY!!! GET SET!!! GOOOOOOO!!!
This is one of our favorite pictures taken by Tom from a bridge.
"I see PopPop!!! I see PopPop!!!
"I love my PopPop!!!"
We stop to gather for a group photo but can't quite get it together.
By the way, where is PopPop?
(Wish all those people would stop walking in front of us!)
We just about have everyone in this picture except PopPop Tom. Ohhh!
he's taking the picture! Maybe we should have asked that scary man
walking by to take the picture. Ouch!
"Are we done yet???" asks PopPop Jims.
HALF WAY!
Walk down one side of the canal, cross over and walk back!
Gorgeous day....not too hot, not too cool and not raining!!!
TIME TO HEAD BACK!
PopPop Jims pulls Blake and Catlin in the wagon. Those kids will be exhausted!
PopPop catches Nicholas and JoJo crossing the bridge.
Jason pulls Alexis and cousin Caitlin with Conya and Kendra following along.
The sweet girl in the wheelchair being pushed and followed by wonderful
family are friends of Kendra's. She has a torn meniscus and was going to do
the walk on crutches!!!! She even had to make special arrangements to be at
the walk in addition to renting a wheel chair! Talk about a FRIEND!!!
Is that Blake STILL in the wagon?? And now those kids are EATING!!!
The end can't be much further!
JoJo and PopPop Jims bring up the rear!
There we go!!!
Are you kids full yet???
Brent and Marley haven't had enough exercise yet!
They decide to run up and down the hill! Crazy kids!
There's the end! After we go under the balloons, people will cheer for
"Lexi Lou's Who"!!!
AND WE'LL GET LUNCH!!!
Well, it's sort of lunch....Check out Brent's face!
And Lexi gets to keep the flags and boas from off the wheel chair!
Such sweet people!!!
Lexi feels quite special in her boa!
AND NOW....................SINCE WE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER!
GET READY TO SING!!!
HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY TO NICHOLAS!!!!!
9TH!!! HOW CAN THIS BE???????
And if you don't know, this is a Beyblade decorated cake.
Don't ask!!!
Some of the cousins can fit at the kid table for dinner.
Nicholas loves having the cousins for dinner!
Nicholas has read the first two Heroes of Olympus books (55? pages each!)
He loved them so much, he couldn't wait for Book 3 to come out! I pre-ordered
the book and it arrived to give him yesterday. He was thrilled and started reading
it this morning. The huge book was even being read at the restaurant during
brunch this morning. This boy can tell you anything you need to know about
the Romans. Therefore, he can now build his own Parthenon.
Nicky and Blake's friend, Gabriel came to the party and was excited to see the card.
Nicholas isn't sure about the sparkler candles. Gabriel on the other hand....
Everybody sing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was a sea of red (almost). Nicholas won't really be 9 until October 30 but
since the family was already gathered, we celebrated early. Nicky and Blake
have another exciting adventure that will happen on October 30 which I'll
blog about later. Nicky told me that since he had his 9th birthday yesterday that
he will just go ahead and turn 10 on October 30th. I don't think so!!!
The big kids are now upstairs and downstairs and the dads are
probably gathered in front of a ball game. The women are sitting
around the table laughing, talking and eating. What is Lexi doing?
She is watching Elmo on Uncle Brent's phone. Those crazy kids!
Thanks everyone for your support whether it be with kind words, thoughts,
prayers or financial support. We need/love it all!!! Know that your support
is used to help educate people as to how much we love these special little
kidlets. We couldn't imagine Alexis any way other than the perfect little
girl that she is!
