the breast cancer 3-day.

this would have been an excellent time to use a slideshow. that just occured to me...after i uploaded all 20-some pictures here.

opening ceremonies: mom was nominated to be in a circle of nine survivors who carried in flags with words that exemplified our attitudes toward the cause of erradicating breast cancer. mom's flag said "commitment."

here she is walking out all pretty. it was an inspirational ceremony.

laura and i huddling for warmth during opening ceremonies. it was c-o-l-d that morning and even c-o-l-d-e-r out at south fork with nothing around but fields.

the flags lined up to send off the mass of thousands of walkers.

our team minus jennifer. we wouldn't catch up to her until pit stop 1. the girl you don't know is tinika, mom's former coworker. she's greatness.

one of the, ahem, creatively decorated sweep vans. these traveled along the sides of the road to pick up walkers that needed a break. i think we saw one at least every 10 miutes. they were all equally entertaining.

another sweep van. saving 2nd base. i love that so much. hilarious.

here we are walking on day 1, still rather jolly. the last three miles of day 1 got hard. we walked all 20 miles that day.

this is the end of day 2. i got less enthusiastic about taking pictures on day 2. both laura and i were injured and we only made it 12 miles this day. it was still great though. this picture includes jennifer. she's in the white shirt on the front row. poor girl had to go home after day 2 because she was getting sick, rolled her ankle and was dehydrated on day 1 so badly that she had to get two ivs and sit in the med tent all day. we missed her badly. she did come back for closing ceremonies to walk in with the team, which was awesome.

here are our all three of our tents. it's a contest to decorate your tent, but also a necessity in a sea of pink. otherwise, you'll never find your own.

my cheeseball sister in our tent. the first night was SO freezing. i thought i was gonna die. the second night, seen here, was cold but much better.

laura and i laying in our tent. i have sunburn. lots of sunburn.

mom and laura on the morning of day 3. we took our time getting packed and ready because we decided to ride the sag bus (ha!) to lunch and skip the first half of the day. we were all injured and really wanted to make it into closing. so we hitched a ride to beautiful white rock lake, got bandaged up by the medical team and ate lunch. then we set out for our final 10 miles. (that's 42 miles of a possible 60 for those of you following along at home.)

laura and i at holding. we made it! this is where we hung out for a few hours until all the walkers made it in, and we took our final victory walk together. i love how both our bandanas show, "everyone deserves a lifetime" and mine says, "best friends." fitting.

the whole crew, minus jennifer of course. the lady in the purple is my gramma. she's a breast cancer survivor too, and, though i didn't know this until we got there, she was working the merchandise tent at holding! it was way cool to get to hang out with her at the end of our journey.

enough said.

our team logo on the back of laura's shirt. we were the three r's - "remember, remind and rejoice." mom came up with the name and the design. the bottom of her shirt says, "remembering those who have fought the fight, rejoicing in the chance to join the fight and reminding the world that the fight isn't over." pretty stinkin good, huh? not only is mom brave and beautiful, she's super creative!

speaking of beautiful... look at that hair!

once the last walker came into holding, we all linked arms in rows of 10. the survivors went first and then the rest of the walkers. we marched this way through the campus of smu and onto the lawn in front of dallas hall among a sea of supporters.

laura and i walking the victory walk.

balloons released at closing ceremonies.

my fanny pack and flowers from sweet taylor, laura's boyfriend.

the tennis-shoe salute at closing ceremonies. we found out that as a group, we raised $6.4 million for breast cancer research. there are 12 events across the country each year, and i figured if each raised an average of $7 million then the breast cancer 3-day raised $84 million this year alone! completely incredible.

my babies! i missed them so much.

could anyone have asked for a better family? i don't think so.

the love of my life who knows just how much i need to hear that he's proud of me.

beautiful baldness and beautiful baby.

she was a huge fan of our mardi gras beads.

the reason i walked and will continue to walk: "no breast cancer for ellie!"