A Busy Friday

This Friday turned out to be a very busy day for Livi, Joey, and I. Our day started at 8:00 A.M. when we headed north towards El Paso. Our van check engine light came on when we were in St. Louis, and our mechanic suggested we take it to our dealership to have it fixed. So my dad was nice enough to meet us at the dealership and bring us out to the farm where we loaded up in his car and borrowed it for the day. We also hung out with dad and Uncle Dave, and we were able to meet Dave's new girlfriend. After a yummy lunch, we loaded up and headed to our next destination...Metamora!

We went to visit Grandma Heiple and go to the Old Settler's Fair downtown. It is a nice little fair, a lot like the "Sparks in the Park," and "Corn Festival." Livi and Joey went on a few rides and got spoiled by mommy and Grandma Heiple. Grandma H bought them beautiful rocking chairs. They are the perfect size for them and were pretty inexpensive. I bought Joey a hand-carved wooden train. He loves playing with it; and I bought Olivia new hair bows and headbands. They had a great time...thank you very much Grandma Heiple, for the fun afternoon!

After a quick stop at Dairy Queen, Livi, Joey, and I loaded up the car again, and headed to Bloomington for the Relay for Life. My Aunt Kelly and Uncle Rick have headed up a team every year for the past few years. Livi and I participated a couple years ago, and all three of us did again this year. It is always such an amazing, sad, and inspiring experience. To see all of the cancer survivors, their care takers, and hear their stories is amazing. To see them walk that track showing their strength is inspiring, and to know that some of them are still fighting the battle and losing is sad. Our family and friends have been touched with this awful disease. My Uncle Dan, Great Grandpa Dwyer, Great Grandma Donna, Uncle Bob, Cousin Edson Dressler, Mal Pancoast, friends Joe, Ty, Pat, Landon, Nate, Marita, Diane, several of my Uncle Rick's family, and my friend Jay's mother. Some of them lost their battle with cancer, and some of them are alive and loving life. We walk to honor them!

Thank you to Kelly and Rick for including us in your team!

These are some of the honorary bags for our family and friends, I did not find them all.

The survivor walk/our friend Joe in the middle.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, the Heiples loaded up for the last time and headed south. It was a fun, but very busy day. We all slept well!