Marching for Babies, Rain or Shine!

On the March of Dimes website, it says, "We March, Rain or Shine!" I was thinking, "Come, on... April in Arizona, it'll be gorgeous outside!" And yet, this is what we woke up to this morning. Rain, puddles, and 42 degrees....


A quick banana breakfast in the car on the way

I know it doesn't look like it's raining, but it was. It was only a sprinkle by the time the walk started, but it was sure cold! This is most of our group huddled under a tree to avoid the rain for a few minutes before we started walking. Luckily I had brought some jackets for us just in case.

We all had matching t-shirts. Our brother-in-law, Brandon, nicknamed Brigham Big-Rig while he was in the hospital. All the nurses loved it and started calling him that. Hence, when creating the iron-ons for the shirts, I erased the "Rusteze" logo off of Mack's hat, and made it say, "Team Big-Rig"

The backs of the shirts had each person's name. Obviously, this is my shirt. We had a few kids walking with us who were born early so under their names it said "I was a premie".

Carrie decided before we even started that she wanted to be out of her stroller and walk.

It only lasted a few minutes and then she was blue-lipped and shivering, so we snuggled her back up in the stroller.

We found the Larson's (Alana's parents) during the walk!


For a little stretch Carrie wouldn't let anyone else hold her but me. By this point we'd probably walked at least 2 miles and I was getting a little tired. Add a 23 pound weight in my arms.... (Don't you love how the weather totally killed any style my hair might have had that morning)

Walking with Grandpa and Uncle Jake

*(Side note, we missed my other brother Kevin and sister-in-law Kandis who were home timing contractions during the walk. They're in the hospital now waiting for their daughter to arrive!)

All the little kids: Shea, Carrie, Evan and Jake. We knew there was no way we were going to get a picture with all four of them looking and smiling at the same time, but we tried anyways.

The Greers and the Paynes. They were also walking for their premie daughter Maddie who was born at 29 weeks and passed away when she was 10 days old from a disease called NEC (basically where the intestines die, due to low blood supply).

The whole group at the end. We did it!!!

Justin and I went to visit Brigham's grave afterward. We brought the blue flower balloon and the metal hook thingy to hold the new bamboo windchime.
We had a great day honoring our sweet little boy. We look forward to doing it again next year and every year after that.... :)