I did not plan to stay there the entire time. Ugh.
24 hours of being awake is hard.
The day before I helped mom set up our tent so we didn’t
have to do it the morning before.
Literally no one from the office helped her and she was basically on her
own. They knew about the date a year in
advance and everyone conveniently made plans to be gone so they didn’t have to
help or be a part of it. Luckily this
year Ben, Trish and I were available to help her or she would have been on her
own. Grandma also came to hang out.
Mom got there around 8 to finish setting up and Trish got
there as soon as she could to set up her tent since it took two people to put
it up. I got there after 10 because I
went to mom and dad’s to get the step stool and her sewing table. I unloaded them at our spot, settled in and
waited for the event to start at noon.
I waited for Ben to get there because he left a few hours after I
did. I had him bring a surge protector
and a few blankets and pillows since the weather was not going to be the
greatest and no one likes to be cold. He
got there around 1:30.
Opening ceremonies was pretty emotional for some of the participants;
the survivors did a lap around the track to I am a Survivor by blah blah. They ended up playing that song a few times
before the event was over. Once they
crossed the finish line everyone started putting laps in. I worked on the luminary bags and walked laps
in between. I had just started another
lap and I had someone tap me on the shoulder…I was expecting Ben, who was
jogging around the track, but I was surprised to see it was Celeste. I knew she was coming but didn’t know when I
would see her. We walked around the
track together for a few miles. She
explained she was here with her friend who had battled leukemia and
survived. I thought that was very cool
of her.
I walked a few more laps with Ben and Trish and some with grandma.
I got all of the luninara bags done and Trish
filled them with sand and a candle and set them aside for the ceremony at 10:30
that evening. We did a few more laps
because I wanted an even number before we left for Alex and Megan’s wedding at
6. I wanted to leave around 4:30 so we
had enough time to get there and get ready.
My mom saw the photographer that was taking the team photos so she got
his attention telling him that our team was ready and he came over and got a
few of us. I told mom we would be back
before 9.
We drove separate vehicles because I thought maybe Ben would have liked
to stay and visit for a bit while I went back to help out at the relay. We stopped at 1-3 to change our clothes into
something more presentable to go to the wedding in. I wore my red top and my nice khakis and some
black flip flops, Ben wore a nice button down, khaki shorts and some casual
shoes. Honestly I expected a lot of
people at this wedding to be wearing jeans and redneck attire since it was in
the Independence area out past Rochester.
We took both vehicles again and I followed Ben and he ended up taking
the wrong road, he realized it after he saw where the wedding was down
below. He said that’s where his GPS took
him. Excuses, excuses.
We finally arrived, parked and walked across the hay field into this
enchanting wooded area with lots of twinkle lights. They did a good job of decorating. The pig Alex picked out was still
roasting. Ben made his rounds talking
with the various firefighters for a few minutes. Then it was time to sit down for the
ceremony. The ceremony lasted about 10
minutes with some technical difficulties with the speaker system. They shrugged it off and continued on. They kissed each other and we all went into
the reception area to eat pig, potato salad, beans, bread, beer and
watermelon. It was the perfect
food. The beer was made by one of Alex’s
friends.
We stood in line, got our food and found a place to sit. We ended up sitting and talking with Megan’s
great aunt and uncle from Georgia the entire time. They were very nice people. We finished our food and wandered around
talking to other firefighters. We
congratulated Alex and Megan before I had to leave around 8. I told my mom I would be back to the school
before 9. Ben walked me to my car and
told me he would see me in a bit. I
wasn’t sure how much longer he would stay.
I got there just before 9 and Ben had texted me a few times saying that
he left shortly after I did. He got
bored and wanted to come back as well. I
thought he would stay longer than that.
I changed out of my nice clothes and back into my walking clothes. Mom and Trish had ordered pizza from Varsity
Pizza out in McKenna. I was still full
from our pig dinner. Ben showed up a few
minutes after I did and he also took some time to change his clothes. I did a bunch more laps with Celeste, Ben and
his mom and we helped spread some more of the luminary bags around the track to
fill in the gaps before the ceremony at 10:30.
Ben and I went home to put the chickens and ducks away and to grab the
fire pit and some wood. When we got back
we unloaded it and set it aside until after the ceremony.
We walked some more laps and then they turned the lights off for the
ceremony. We listened to their speech, a
girl sang a song about hope and we walked a lap to honor those who have
survived, is currently fighting and ones who lost the battle with cancer behind
a bagpipe player. It was very emotional
for some and a memorable moment for others.
We got back to our tent and ate some pizza while we got warm. The temperature had dropped and the wind was
blowing. I had to put my sweat pants
on.
Then we continued to walk more laps
around the track. Mom told us to light
the fire. We had someone from the
leadership team walk over and told us we could not have it where we had
it. We told her that someone told us we
could have it here since we could not have it on the lawn. She told us sorry so we dumped water on
it. Mom came back from the bank and
asked around about the fire pit. We
ended up being able to have it on the concrete slab near our tent next to the
fence. It felt nice once we got the fire
started again. Then we had a bunch of
kids hang out with us for a while.
I got up again and started walking laps. I wanted to walk more than I did two years
ago…which was 7 miles. I can totally
walk more than that this year. A few
times I went out with Trish, Ben and my mom and we walked a few.
Then we chilled inside our tent area wrapped
up in blankets. At some point around
3:30-4:00 I got comfortable and closed my eyes.
I was asleep until about 7:30 because it started lightly sprinkling on
my face. Ben and Trish had gotten up
earlier and had put some laps behind them.
Ben told me that he got some coffee and wondered if I wanted any hot
chocolate or a muffin. He brought me
both. I walked the rest of my remaining
miles with Trish who was after 24. I
just wanted to finish 12 because that was five miles more than I did two years
ago.
At 10:00 was the Seahawk lap. Ben wore his West Thurston pullover, I wore
my 12th man jersey and Trish wrapped herself in a Seahawk
blanket. It was fun.
It was almost time to go and I had no idea where mom was. They did the closing ceremonies and then we
started breaking down our tent area.
About 45 minutes later I found out she was in one of the motor homes
with the event leadership counting the money so they could take it to the bank.
I put stuff into the Escape and put the rest of it into mom’s car. Lastly, we grabbed the ice cream out of the
freezer, we decided to sell ice cream but the weather was so poor no one hardly
bought any, told Trish thank you for coming and safe travels back home and we
headed to mom and dad’s house to drop off the stuff.
Dad was home so he helped me take the fire pit to the back of the house
and drop it off along with the firewood we didn’t use, the bucket, the Plinko
board and our cardboard cutout of Chewie.
I could tell Ben wanted to go home really bad. We were tired, sore and my toe was killing
me. I wanted some real food and my
bed. We drove the half hour to home,
unloaded our stuff into the house, ate a sandwich, took showers and went to bed
for a couple of hours.
I got up around 6ish and started doing laundry and cooking dinner. We put some of our boxes away from moving and
then it was time for actual bed. I
passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Next Adventure: Wild Waves and Enchanted Village
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