Well, it’s Saturday night, and we are exhausted….again. Our family mantra. Just finished the 2004 Relay for Life. A fundraising effort for cancer prevention and treatment. It was fun, but we’re pretty tired. But, our team raised over $2000. The entire total? Almost $350,000.00! The reason we were there? Issac.

We set up camp on Friday afternoon. Mick and Lissa did the grunt work, and we all flew in after work to finish up. None of us had been to Relay for Life before, so we didn’t know what to expect. We had tons of fun. The team raises money based on how many laps a team walks or for how long. We signed up for times. Mick and I did the Midnight-2 shift. Grace went to Durochers. And the fun ensued. Here’s some highlights:

Well, first off, our team name was, “The Supersoakers”. We charged $1 to get soaked. We also sold cotton candy. $2 a bag. We sold out of it at least three times.

Our team walked continuously for 24 hours at cascades park. We counted at the end during the finishing parade lap a crew of 19 people. Not bad for the first year!

Friday night we were freezing. John and I decided to take the John Deere Gator to Wendy’s drive thru at 11:45. It was so fun. People were looking at us like we were crazy. We got 8 hot chocolates, and drove them back. The funniest and most awkward moment of the night was when we saw Alex and Bill walking on the course. We came up to them and said, “Hot Chocolate?” They grabbed two. Well, behind them was another group who were walking and they thought we were handing out free hot chocolate. One woman came up to me and looked at me like she was interested. I gave her the brush off look, and drove off. It was hilarious. Later, her group came to our booth to buy cotton candy. Micki ran up to her and gave her an extra hot chocolate and told her the story. It was funny. John and I can re-enact it sometime if any of you wanna see it.

Mick and I power walked our shift. We did 20 laps each. Hard core. I am still feeling it. We got toasted by the sun too. Didn’t know we were. But Saturday proved to be a perfect day. Especially for our team. We had kids coming up left and right to be soaked. We borrowed the megaphone from the SAFD and took turns talking to the walkers to ask them to come over to get soaked. We even provided anyone who wanted a free squirt to keep them cool. One group of teens came back 3 times to get drenched. It was really fun.

Later in the day was the Iron Chef competition. 14 teams doing it like the TV show. Alex and John entered. And won the whole thing! They got a perfect score for their meal that they made. It was a triumph. And was great for our team. Next year they’ve gotta defend the crown.

There were tons of little stories of getting to know people, having fun, sharing our lives, and raising money. Great to hang with Alex and Bill, Lee and Chris, and Jason and Erin. Plus we got to meet some of Chris’s extended family. Great to share time and a common cause. I’ve posted a Web gallery of the weekend as well. Any of you guys that want full-sized copies, feel free to e-mail me.