How'd the WalkAmerica go?

A bunch of people have asked me how the WalkAmerica went, and I've promised to blog about it, but I needed pictures, all of which Drew was holding hostage on his account and NOT uploading to flickr. He can be harassed here. Finally, I got them.

The walk was held on April 21st, at beautiful Lakeshore Park on the Ross Barnett Reservoir. The first thing we did was visit the family tent, which was covered in posters of ambassador families, of which we were one. (It's not quite as important as it sounds - it just means we had a preemie and we were present.) Here is our poster:















Yeah, um, I don't know why that didn't come out right side up. I told it to. Turn your head. It's basically this picture, the story of Ace, and then this picture.

A teen-aged girl walked up to us, looked at Ace, and said "Is that ACE?" "Sure is!" "Oh my gosh, he's got the bluest eyes I've ever seen! Hey!" she yelled to her friends, "It's ACE!!" Suddenly, Ace was the bread, the girls were the geese. The kid was surrounded by admirers, and he was straight up loving it.





























Heehee, could Drew look any more uncomfortable?

When I came back from making the payments for Team Ace, the girl standing closest to Drew was holding Ace. I fought the instinct to tackle her, remembering that I'm taking on a new attitude of exposing him to more things, and let her coo over him for a few minutes.

Finally, I wrangled him back and Team Ace posed for a picture. This is the picture that all the contributors received, lucky y'all.















Then, the flag was presented, a girl sang the national anthem, Maggie Wade-Dixon, local news anchor, gave us a pep talk, and all of the ambassador families were recognized.















That's Maggie Wade-Dixon holding the microphone, and that big red thing off to the side is Trusty, the mascot for the Mississippi Braves.

Either Ace really digs the national anthem, or he was checking out the girl that was singing it. Either way, he was a really good boy during the whole thing.















A group of local high school girls did a cheer for us, which was cute. We did the warmup, and the ambassador families were gathered to lead off the walk. We were given a whole mess of balloons to let go at the beginning.

Unfortunately, we had to send Ace home with Drew. Naptime was fast approaching, and there was no way he'd last another hour for us to walk.

Mom and I headed to the front, let our balloons go, and started the 3.5 mile trek through the Reservoir section of Brandon. The walk itself wasn't so bad. It wasn't a race, like the Run from the Sun that I had done the week before, so people were walking considerably slower. My tiny, stumpy legs and screwy ankles thank them. We walked through a residential neighborhood, and a bunch of the people there waved and thanked us from their freakin' amazing houses. Every single water station was completely out of water! Finally, with less than a quarter mile left to go, a dude in a golf cart came around with warm water bottles out of a box. Mm, refreshing. When we finally did get to the finish line, we were greeted with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, ice cold water and cokes, ice cream... yummers. Mom and I sat down with some of Ace's NICU nurses (many of whom said they'd be at the walk, but only 3 of whom actually showed) and ate and complained about how tired we were.

Then it was time for the recognition ceremonies. I made the t-shirt you see above because I was promised a t-shirt contest. Thing was, I thought it'd be FAIR.

A member of each team was chosen to come to the front for the t-shirt contest. I walked up, confident I'd win, because by golly, my shirt was the cutest. It had a picture of Ace on it, how could I go wrong? When I realized that the winning shirt would be chosen by the crowd's applause, I realized I was done for. I kept a smile on my face anyway, as Team Ace was called. My mom did her dutiful loud, boisterous applause, and a couple other people politely golf-clapped, but the crowd's response to my shirt was anemic, at best.















Of course, the team with the loudest people won, not with the best shirt. By far.

So, being a sore loser aside, I had a really good time. Team Ace raised... are you ready?... $1,125! (For those of you I told $1,075, we got a late entry.) I am extremely proud of my family and friends (and family of friends, and friends of family) for contributing money for such a great cause. I have only realized over the course of preparing for this walk how much the March of Dimes has contributed to prematurity research, and caring for premature babies and children born with birth defects. Their contribution is unparalleled, and I'm so proud and happy to help the organization as much as possible. I can't WAIT till next year, so y'all start saving up your money, cuz I'm gonna come after you again!