Buddy Walk Photo Album

I want nothing more than to be in my bed right now, but I feel I owe it to you generous blog readers and friends who made donations to the Buddy Walk to give you an update on last weekend's festivities. Forgive me if my update lacks the bells and whistles of a normal post, but both of our sweet kids have crusty green noses at the moment. Lois seems basically unfazed by her inability to breathe. Mac? Well, he's a different story all together. Sleep at the Hogan household is at a premium once again. Actually, with the exception of the butter bean, no one here has had a good night's sleep for a month. But we'll save the sordid details of Mac's curious recent behavior for another day.

We're going to make this quick because my ability to compose complete sentences is quickly leaving me...

Buddy Walk = Awesome!


Lois = Adorable! Am I wrong?

Here she is waving to the crowd as her name was called. All of the Buddy Captains (i.e. children and adults with Down Syndrome) are introduced before the walk starts. It was freezing and I dressed both kids in shorts. It's not my fault. Seriously. I was misled but I won't tell you by whom. (AUNTIE GINA!)


Lois was so excited she gave her Daddy a BIG kiss. (We're still working on the whole closed mouth kiss thing.....)

Here are the Buddy Captains posing for a group photo. If you click on the photo and enlarge it, you might be able to pick out some of our friends. Look for Elizabeth, Landon, and George. And make sure you check out Lois beating on her Daddy's head.


What did Mac think of the festivities? I think this photo about sums it up.



Here is Team Butter Bean on the track doing a lap. That would be Aunt Marpa and Uncle Scootie and Andy and Maggie and Auntie Gina and Uncle Jimmy and Livvy and Mac. YaYa and Pops had already called it a day and Jay and I were with the Butter Bean. Where was the Butter Bean, you ask?


She had to wait in line for almost an hour to make her short walk across the stage and missed lunch. So while the rest of the team was actually walking, Lois was doing this:



My girl loves a hot dog, you know.

We had an additional member of Team Butter Bean this year. My good friend Gretchen drove the whole way from New York City to surprise us. It was a great surprise and I have her to thank for many of these great pictures. Thanks Gretchen!


A few more photos from the day....


Finally, at the last minute we got a tip on a location where we could park and wait for Lois's billboard to appear. As you'll see from the photo, Lois's photo was larger than life on the billboard right outside of the Hooters. We're so proud.

The photo is crappy because it is an electronic billboard and hard to photograph, but you'll get the general idea.

We are so thankful to all of you who made donations to support the DSAGR in Lois's honor. I'm working on thank you notes. Seriously. I am. Don't even think about posting a comment and telling me that I don't need to thank you. I'll feel guilty if I don't do it. The guilt will keep me up at night. And frankly, I don't need any help in that department these days.