Benefit Ride

This past weekend I had the opportunity to take part in something really amazing. My cousin Mandy and her boyfriend Mike live up in Woodstock, IL. A friend of Mike's, 24 year old Eric, was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, which is a form of bone cancer, in November 2007. Eric has endured several aggressive rounds of chemotherapy, but the doctors were concerned about the cancer spreading so he ended up having his foot amputated. He now has a prosthetic foot and is able to do just about everything he could before the amputation. However, he still has more chemotherapy to finish, and of course he has gigantic medical bills. Mike enlisted the help of the Village of Wauconda and the Wauconda Police Department (where Eric works) to organize a benefit ride/bike run for Eric.

The ride was on Sunday so my mom, my aunt, and I decided to go and help register the riders. They ended up getting about 100 riders. It was so amazing to see all of the people who showed up to support this guy. The majority of the people who came had never even met Eric. My brother and my uncle also rented bikes for the day so they could go on the ride. I didn't go on the ride, so I took pictures and videotaped them as they were leaving the parking lot. I almost started crying watching them pull out and just thinking about why they were all there. It was so amazing.

Mark & Uncle Denny getting excited to ride

Mark's, Mike's, and Uncle Denny's bikes in front of the restaurant / bar that hosted the event.

Some of the bikes lined up before the ride

Mandy & Me

Mandy & Mike getting ready to take off

Weekend in Rockford

This past weekend we went to Rockford for Mark's 30th birthday party. Maren's parents had a big party at their house, and we had a great time visiting with family. My cousin Jenn and her little one Clare came from Maryland, so that made the weekend even more special. I hadn't seen them since last summer so it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with them.

Jenn and I hadn't seen each other in a year and we both showed up wearing brown shirts, jean shorts, and brown flip-flops. And our hair is the same length! It's that crazy cousin connection we have.

Clare didn't really know who I was at first, but she wanted to come right to me!

Clare had so much fun playing with Chloe cuz she's just her size!

You know a dog is small when they are shorter than a one year old standing up!

Checking out the baby pigs. Maren's Dad raises pigs so it's always fun to go see the newest ones. These piglets were only three days old. Maren is such a good sport about getting the pigs out for the little kids to see. She used to show pigs at the fair when she was younger so she has a lot of experience handling them.

Walkin' with mommy.

And with Grandpa.

What could be more fun than a toy barn?

Maren showing Clare the bell in her Mom's house.

Me and the birthday boy. He's so old!

Mandy & Me

Mark trying to steal a bite of cake before the candles are even lit!

Trying to blow out all 30 candles!

That's all folks!

Naperville Ribfest

Adam and I wanted to do something fun, just the two of us, for the 4th of July since we haven't gotten to do much of that lately. We decided to head up to the Naperville Ribfest since neither of us had been there before. Ribfest is a HUGE four day long festival to raise money for victims of domestic violence and child abuse. They have bands playing all day, carnival rides, games, and tons of food vendors. There are probably twenty different vendors that sell ribs and every other BBQ dish you can think of. Most of them sell sampler plates with just four ribs so you can go around and taste all the different ones. They were all DELICIOUS!!!

REO Speedwagon was playing while we were there, but we didn't get a chance to get up close to the stage becuase we were too busy chowing down on ribs, so here is a long distance shot...

At the end of the night they had a half hour long fireworks show put to music. I have to say, it was probably the best fireworks show I had ever seen.

Karys the Beauty Queen

The Grundy County Fair was this week, and this year our niece Karys decided to compete in the pageant. She competed in the Jr. Miss category, which is 11-14 year olds. She was the tiniest one of the whole group, but she looked gorgeous and she did an awesome job on her speech. She even won the award for prettiest dress. She didn't win the title, but we were so proud of her anyway!

We had to take a picture of Karys and Me since Uncle Adam was working and couldn't make it.