Grateful doesn't seem like a strong enough word for what Kenny and I have been feeling lately! Our race with the Druava's and Pound the Pavement for Parenthood honestly could not have gone any better. Just a little recap of the weekend...
Thursday:
Kenny and I headed up to St. George with my brother Mike (who traveled all the way from St. Louis, Missouri) to meet up with Kenny's brother Blake, sister-in-law Jodi, and their cute twins (who drove down from Layton, Utah) in Zion's National Park. We spent the day exploring the park and just catching up. It was such a fun day and we had a lot of good laughs (especially when Mike had a bird poop on his head... sorry Mike :-/ ) It was great to spend time with some of our family before everything got really crazy! After Zion's we drove back into St. George to meet up with the rest of my family that had driven all the way from Colorado and Utah. My Dad was amazing and rented a condo from one of my sister Kristi's friends for all 20 of us to fit in. It was so much fun to have so much of our family there! We had a great night eating pizza, playing at the park with the littler nieces and nephews, and even got meet up with one of my brother Scott's good friends and his family from high school.
Friday:
On Friday morning Kenny and I got to spend a little bit hanging out with the family watching my nieces and nephews drive the awesome tandem bike all around. Then at about 10 am it was time to get busy. We ran to a couple businesses to pick up raffle and grab bag items they had donated and then headed to the park to meet up with Jill and Shellee who had just pulled in from Salt Lake. We chatted about some details and made a game plan for the day. Then we headed to Christine's office where they were so wonderful to let us stuff our grab bags. Luckily we had lots of help from my family and Christine's friends so were able to get things done pretty quickly.
After stuffing the grab bags we headed to lunch where we had a lot of good laughs and tried to make some new friends with strangers. The rest of the night was spent putting up signs and marking off the course for the next morning. After we were done marking off the trail around 11pm, so we ran over to meet up with Trevor and Kasey (who drove from Idaho) to say hello. We had SO much family come into town to support us. It was amazing! It was a late night, but so much fun hanging with everyone!
Saturday: (AKA Best.Day.Ever.)
I honestly didn't sleep much on Friday night. I was so anticipating a day we had been working SO hard for. I honestly couldn't believe it was here. Kenny and I were up at 4:30 and out the door by 5:30 to meet up with the rest of the gang and get set up. Our AMAZING family all got up around the same time and met us there at 6am to set up. (Have I mentioned how much my family rocks! They showed up early and helped so much!) As check-in started I couldn't believe the amount of people that started pulling in. So many friends, family members, and strangers that had come to support us, the Druava's, and Pound the Pavement. It was almost hard to take in all that was happening. To be honest the biggest thing I can remember from all of it was the overwhelming amount of love I felt. Love for the people who took time out of their busy lives to support us, love for the strangers that were there to support PPP and others struggling with infertility.
The Fairchild Clan (Everyone got all decked out in "Baby Ward" gear)
My Cute Mama Supporting Baby Ward
The Budge Family!
Thank you SO much for supporting us!
The Whole Ward/Budge Crew
Jodi, Blake and the Girls!
Everyone Checking In!
Such an Incredible Turn Out
Our Doctor, the Incredible Dr. Foulk
The Druava Family, Shellee, Jill, and Us
We've made lifelong friends through this experience and I will forever be grateful to Jill, Shellee, and the entire Pound the Pavement family for all they have done to help Kenny and I get to this point. They were an answer to MANY prayers. I am so grateful that we got to organize this race with Christine, Joape, and Maraia... They have become incredible friends! The last year has been amazing and I can't wait for the year to come! To our wonderful family, thank you will never seem like enough. We had SO many people that came to support us. And even though we barely had any time to be with all of you, we hope you know how much we appreciated you being there and how loved you are by us! And to those that couldn't be there... thank you SO much for the support from far away. We felt so much love from you that meant to the world to us!
Here's to the future with Baby Ward!
