Just the two of us ... our annual girls' trip.

Each fall, as I travel to different Buddy Walk events, I am fortunate to have an amazing little travel companion/partner in crime. At 7.5 years old, Liv has been going to Walks with me since, well, she could walk.  We've lost track of the actual number she has been to, but we think this year was #13. She is a regular at Walks in Ohio: Cleveland, Boardman, Cincinatti and Columbus, and last year, she joined me in Tulsa.  This year, I brought her to what may be her most memorable Buddy Walk ever: Jacksonville Beach.

Between staying in a hotel right on the ocean, having carnival rides, a bungee jump AND the Walk ON the beach, I knew she would be in heaven.  And I was right.  We were in Florida for 4 nights and despite the poor girl being sick with a cold/upper respiratory infection  (we had to make an unscheduled stop to an Urgent Care) we had a wonderful time collecting shells, visiting with my amazing friends from the Down Syndrome Association of Jacksonville (Liv met lots of fun people and got to hang with some cool kids (with and without Down syndrome) which made it an even more enjoyable and meaningful trip.) 

Without any further ado, our trip in pictures:

Thursday:

Breakfast of champions. Don't hate. It was early.

Liv's "artistic" photo from 10,000 feet

Finally... hitting the beach

Savoring the moment

A love letter to the beach (I originally thought it was for me.) WRONG!

Sand art: our hotel, the ocean and the sun. Brilliant!

Miss adventurous was determined to have crab legs for dinner. Success!

Friday:

Sunrise from our hotel room

Early morning shell hunt. Found a jelly fish!

At the St Augustine Alligator Farm - an albino alligator

When in Rome (or St. Augustine) ... you gotta hold a 'gator

Hamming it up with Princess

Feeding time!

Someone was hungry and extra ferocious

Excited to see the "Golden Tomb" from history

Her 2nd favorite part of the day; watching a python swallow a rat. Crazy kid.

Gator wrestling.

Saturday:

A girl (or girls) could get used to this view in the morning

Professional shell collector

Volunteers hard at work setting up for the Buddy Walk

Ready to get our Walk on!

Miss Joni and Penelope before the Pirate ship ride started. Smiles weren't so big when the ride was over. Phew!

Liv and her new friend Penelope. They had so much fun together in Jacksonville!

Liv made a flamingo, "Jackie" at the Buddy Walk.

Whee! A bungee!

A fly-over plane promoting the Buddy Walk. How cool!

Buddy Walk on the beach!

Miss P frolicking

Liv and Miss P. How cute!

Miss Debbie, DSAJ's Executive Director. So honored to recognize them as being the 2012 Buddy Walk of the year! I have enjoyed working with her the past 11 years!

Sunday: 

We saw a heron from our hotel room and hurried down to check it out

A close up of the great blue heron.

So excited to find a conch shell this morning!

Mr. Timmy and Chad's collection of shark and megolodon teeth. Cool! And Miss Jennie gave Liv two sand dollars from her collection. How exciting!

Our last sunrise on the beach. So beautiful!

Catching a few zzzz's on the flight home

SURPRISE! My luggage was inspected!

Ketchup With Us - #29. The Injury

'KETCHUP WITH US' - Prompt #29

It's that time again - time for the latest installment of 'Ketchup With Us'.  This time, the ever creative and often times mildly embarrassing prompt by Michele and Mel is to recall one of those injuries.  You know, the kind you makes you cringe when you are reminded of it. This one may be my most memorable one.  And I can thank my sister and our competitive nature for it happening.



She raced down the hill, not using her brakes, turning down the drive at just the right second.

My turn.

Upping the ante, I zoomed down the hill with no hands.  Top *this* sis!

I turned too late and hurtled towards the tree. Narrowly missing it, there was nothing that could stop me now...except the house.
 
Crash!

My parents heard the impact (I cracked the siding) and I was soon in the ER getting stitches by my eye and on my cheek.  As if this wasn't bad enough, I had a nasty shiner in my 4th grade school picture.  My stupidity. Forever immortalized.

(If I weren't traveling, the picture would be inserted here.)

And my sister? She later put her wrist through a window, narrowly missing one of her arteries. She wins...

Ketchup With Us #28: Be Afraid

'KETCHUP WITH US' - Prompt 28

In the spirit of Hallowen - and all things spooky and scary - Michele and Mel bring us the latest, chilling and frightening installment of 'Ketchup With Us'. In it, we are prompted to post our best terrifying OR terrified face.

Sticking with the Halloween theme, I submit the following. Look if you dare:

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Happy to be home

Each fall I try not to do it, but every once and awhile I need to make back to back weekend trips to Buddy Walks.  This was one of those times.  Last weekend I was in Fargo, this weekend I was in Indianapolis.  I had barely set my suitcase down before Liv asked me if I wanted to go take a walk with her and Jazzy.  Although I was exhausted, I was happy to be home with my family, the weather was beautiful and I knew days like this would be few and far between.

Off we went into Farmer Brian's field behind our house:

...and they're off!

Thankful Liv is strong enough to walk/run Jazzy now! 

Sprinting

What's in the hole?

The wooly bear says it is going to be a cold winter. Boo.

Getting a closer look

Running home

Too fast for the Mama. :)

After our excursion with Jazzy, it was time to wake the boy up from his nap. Joe-Joe was happy to see me, but even happier to go outside and play with his noona while Brian was working outside.  I came out and wasn't quite sure what they were up to, so I decided to investigate.

Hmmm. What are they up to?

Liv and her trusty bug box

Digging in the dirt. Woohoo!!

Finding rolypoly bugs to feed the chickens

Checking out the bugs

Digging machine ... and his "dirt"

SURPRISE! It's a snake!

Papa to the rescue!

So. Much. Dirt. And. Stuff. (Happy boy)