It was Buddy Walk #6 for us and every year it has gotten bigger and better. It started with just a few face painting and craft booths and has morphed into an all-out carnival (aka: the Buddy Bash) with rides and games and inflatables and tons of food. Now that the kids are older, the Buddy Bash before is as much fun as the Buddy Walk itself.
One of the most highly anticipated moments in preparation of the Buddy Walk is the announcement of the design and colors of the shirts. This year the colors were teal and white. And our awesome friend Melissa again created a masterpiece for Alaina. I'm kind of hoping she doesn't grow very quickly so she continues to get unique and adorable, one-of-a-kind Melissa outfits. She even has a matching hair accessory!
So after the kids got the lay of the land, they scattered to try out all the different activities. Justin spied the huge inflatable slide and he hurried over to test it out. It worked very well!
After Justin went down and Alaina saw how much fun he had, she wanted a turn. I told her she couldn't do it, but the volunteer Boy Scout who was helping out insisted that he and the Boy Scout at the top would help and she would be just fine. So she eagerly began climbing.
So she got half way up and it got steeper, and then Justin started his ascent for another trip down and he got caught behind Alaina. Now, Justin doesn't do very well climbing up by himself anyway, and with Alaina in front, it was impossible.
So the Boy Scout at the bottom managed to climb up the slide to get up to the top so he could help at the top as well. So both of them were trying to reach both my kids, who wouldn't dare let go for fear of falling. Alaina was crying and Justin was telling her to hurry up and the Boy Scouts were trying to get down far enough to help without falling themselves. So mommy had to intervene and grab one kid under each arm and barrel up to the top without losing momentum and falling backwards. We all tumbled up to the top and screamed with glee as we went tumbling down again, and again, and again. The Boy Scouts were awesome! We got a system going of handing one child up and then maneuvering the next one around and up without anyone tumbling down the stairs. When we were done and ready to move on (mommy got tired...) I sat down to put on everyone's shoes and a woman commented about Justin and Alaina's orthotics. It turns out that it was the mother of the Boy Scout who had been at the bottom, the one who was so anxious to help my children. (He's at the top in the picture.) He had been in an accident and he has a prosthetic leg. He's the boy who struggled up the slide to get to the top and help. And he mentioned over and over about the Scouts being there to help in whatever way they could. Hearing that took my gratitude to another level. It was precious!
And then we got more help from the Scouts. Justin saw these tricycles and really wanted to ride, but he couldn't reach the pedals so the Scout pushed him around the track three times. I couldn't get his face in a picture, but Justin had a blast! He thought it was so fun. And the Scout really went out of his way to help Justin. There are TONS of volunteer groups who help at the Buddy Walk and they are all so excited and sincere. It's the one big event where the kids with Down syndrome are the guests of honor, and everyone else is there to celebrate them.
Then we went to the rock wall. Travis (and our friend Crystal) climbed up lickety split.
Then Justin wanted to try. But apparently he doesn't weigh enough to trigger the counter balance that lets you down easily, so I had to help him.
Up, up...
Up as far as mommy could reach! He didn't quite understand the concept of holding on to the wall and climbing. And from underneath him I couldn't really see what was happening enough to explain.
Then I had to pull him back down. Or maybe just leave him???
Nah, I'll take him home with me! He's too cute to leave behind!
There aren't a lot of pictures of Travis because his favorite activity was playing laser tag in the dark. They had inflatable "rooms" for the kids to play in. He had a blast with Melissa's son. And Alaina enjoyed the bounce house, but again, not good pictures.
Justin's Jaywalkers 2013
Then we were off on the Walk. Our balloons were nothing compared to this carriage.
Some of our team:
During the Walk the volunteers line the route with signs and shouting encouragement. When they saw our sign they yelled, "Yeah, Justin! Go Justin's Jaywalkers!" Justin ate it up!
This is one of my favorite signs from this year:
The kids got medals this year, but some of them had left already so this was all I could muster. By this time it was starting to sprinkle and it was close to 2:00 so we were all a bit tired and dragging.
So we piled back into our can and headed home. The first thing Justin did was pull the medal off the ribbon and slide it into the slot in the car seat between his legs where the strap tightens. That required a complete dismantling of the car seat to extract his precious medal. It took quite a while to get it apart, but daddy was successful. Not happy, but successful. (You can see the screws laying beside Randy. He had to take out 11 screws to get inside the bottom.) He received quite a chastising and he is not allowed in the car with his medal ever again.
So another fabulous Buddy Walk is over. Our team raised almost $2,000 and the total for this year's Walk was almost $280,000 which surpassed the goal of $230,000! Thanks to everyone who made this Walk awesome. We have more fun every year. You're all welcome to join us next year! If you're interested, let me know and I will send an e-mail when we start organizing our team.
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