The Color Run

As I said previously, I am way behind in my posts. We did the Color Run back in August and I wanted to make sure to post it since I post all our runs on here. 

 Our team name was "Au-gust of Color"... get it? lol 

We didn't feel dirty enough at the first color spot so we made chalk angels. 

By the end we all looked like green goblins! 

We always have a victory kiss ♥

This stuff took days to get off. I think I was picking it out of my scalp for at least a week! 

Charity Never Faileth

This past summer Tyler decided on his own that he wanted to start a lemonade stand and give all his proceeds to a children's hospital. Completely shocked I asked why and his response was, "all kids deserve to live!". He almost seemed a little offended that I even had to ask. lol

So I helped him make the lemonade and gave him a little station at the bottom of the driveway. He earned about $30 and today we finally mailed it off (really late, I know).

After some research we decided to send his donation to the UC Davis Children's Hospital - Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy program. The funds are used to directly enhance the children's stay at the hospital with toys, art supplies, entertainment, etc. We felt that this would make a bigger impact from such a small donation. 

I'm so proud of my eight year old son for coming up with this act of kindness on his own. With this I made my New Years resolution - do more charity/humanitarian work. It's something I can do with my family and we can all benefit from it. 

Isn't it nice when the young ones set the example for us adults! 

If you are interested in making a contribution to this charity please mail donation to:

Diana Sundberg, CCLS
Child Life & Creative Arts Therapy Manager

UC Davis Hospital

2315 Stockton Blvd

Sacramento, CA 95817

9/11 memorial race in Sacramento

This morning we got up bright and early to attend the 9/11 memorial race in Downtown Sacramento. It was an honor to attend this event. 

My sister Heather came out with her baby, Kyla. 

See the Capitol in the background? 

This man ran with this flag the entire way! 

The most beautiful thing about this event was the flag ceremony. Each person who completed the race was given a flag and then led into a blocked off area to place our flag down for a person who had died on September 11, 2001. With over 3000 names it was quite difficult to walk in there and pick one name to dedicate your flag to. 

We saw firemen from all over the state who came out to show their support for their fallen brothers. We saw several from the Bay area and some even from Southern California. 

10 years later and seeing the footage still makes my heart ache.

 We will never forget. 

Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure

Yesterday we did our first Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure. It was an early start and as you can see Tyler was extremely sluggish at 6:00am on a Saturday morning. We geared up in our pink and headed out! 

 It took awhile for Tyler to really wake up. 

 This is Edie Lambert from channel 3 news. She was the MC for the event. 

 Tyler is starting to wake up... but still not happy I made him get up so early on Saturday.

 This is before the race, 25,000 people showed up! 

 They had us do some Zumba to help get us pumped up! It worked! 

 And off we go! All 25,000 of us! 

 Tyler finally got into it once we started. 

 We finished together full of smiles :)

 Tyler did a race just for kids...

 ...and got a medal! He was very excited about that. 

It was a fun day and I loved that we could do this as a family. We can't wait to do it again next year! 

Walk a mile in her shoes

Yesterday Deke and I had the pleasure to support the Women Center for Violence up in Placerville for their 9th annual "Walk a mile in her shoes" charity walk. The event started with a delightful pancake breakfast then followed with an amazing presentation. They had great speakers which included Sheriff D'Agostini and a beautiful musical performance by his daughter Marina D'Agostini - who wrote the songs that she sang. 

One of the main focuses for this event was to teach us about the "bystander effect" and how so many people could have been saved if someone who was witnessing the crime would of spoken up. They showed us a clip from the TV show "What would you do" about a drunken girl (actress) and a man who starts taking advantage of her in the middle of the bar (the man was also an actor). The point of this video was to see how the bystanders would react in this situation. It was amazing to see hero's step up and protect this complete stranger. But it was also disheartening to see some men actually encourage the actor in his assault. Here is the video if you are interested in watching http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/video/man-lures-drunk-girl-step-10562465 

This is an event that Deke has wanted to do for years. Every year as it approaches he starts hitting the thrift shops and shoe stores in hopes he will score a pair of size 16 women high heel pumps. Again, this year he was unable to find what he needed to participate in this walk. So, I emailed my HR department at work and asked if they had a pair of VERY big womens shoes I could borrow. (Blue Shield is sponsor for this charity, thats why they had shoes!). Luckily they had a size 12 which were a little small but with the open toes it would work! 

Here is Deke suiting up for the walk.. 

 He had to practice his strut before heading out

 Here is the presentation before the walk 

 Marina D'Agostini playing her beautiful music

 Close up of the shoes 

 Like Deke wasn't tall enough! Here we are just before leaving for the walk. Ignore my peacock hair, I had just rolled out of bed! 

 Here are the men from the Blue Shield team! Showing leg and all!!! 

 And here we go! 

 This guy went ALL out. Fishnet stockings, dress, wig, heels, and makeup! I'm glad Deke didn't want to go extreme... 

 In full swing! 

 These shoes belong to the Vice President of Customer Operations at Blue Shield. He not only bought new shoes but even bedazzled them! Although, I think socks should be forbidden for the men. After all, what woman actually wears socks with heels? Certainly not I! 

Deke and I decided last night that this charity is our charity. Not only because we always find ourselves at events for the center but because its such an important awareness that can not be ignored. 1 out of 3 women are sexually abused in their lifetime - 1 OUT OF 3!!! Thats huge! Just think about your family and how many women you know. This means someone close to you has or will be effected. Its frightening to think about but there is something you can do. Visit this link and look into ways you can help your community and save strangers, family, friends, daughters, and mothers. 

“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies,

but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr