Fundraising Award!

It was with great, great surprise that we received this award in the mail the other day. We were not able to make it to the conference...something that weighed heavy on my heart to begin with, but I really wish we were there to accept such a great award! The award was sent with a most kind note from the President of the CHARGE Syndrome Foundation acknowledging our efforts the past 5 years. It is things like this that are so unexpected but make things so much more worthwhile. We are so fortunate to be able to remember Josh while helping those in the CHARGE community. Thank you again to all that volunteer, run, walk, and support us in any way, this success would not be possible without YOU!

Another month in review...

Joey started karate at the end of June and loves it! After seeing the transformation of our bathroom, the kids had been planning for a while to redo their bathroom with a blue sky, rainbow, and clouds. That later led them to ask for a city with houses, buildings, cars, trucks, planes, trees. We have it all. Sorry I haven't taken the after shot! It is all done and looks great, but here are the workers starting their paint job. One of the really hot days in July we went to the DuPage Children's Museum with Auntie, Andrew, Emma, and Grandma. Joey and Jill (and Java too!)had a fun time pretending to camp out in our family room... Jill had a Storybook Ballet dance workshop where she enjoyed dancing with the bigger girls. Lucky for her she advanced into the next class for 5-7 year olds! She'll have to step it up this fall, but she does love dance. Towards the end of July my great friend Ellen from Australia came to the States and we met at Navy Pier. She went on to Arizona for the CHARGE Conference which we were not able to attend this year, but are very excited that in 2015 it will be in the Chicagoland area! Ellen emailed me from the conference when she found out and I was so excited to hear it would be so close! We had a great time at Navy Pier with Ellen and her cousin, such lovely people. We went on the Ferris Wheel, watched the kids go on a few other rides, and then after parting ways we went on the SeaDog for a somewhat unexpectedly wet, but fun ride on the lake! The last weekend of July we went with Nonna and Grandpa to Arlington Race Track for family days, there were pony rides, a petting zoo, the regular races, and so much more. We had a nice picnic and a great day. What started off seeming cool and possibly rainy, ended up great! The kids loved cheering on the horses and of course Nonna and Grandpa there made it all the more fun! Finally taking us to this morning, Joey and Jillian started their last 3 day camp of the summer: Dinosaur Dig! Here they are before dropping them off, Joey is very into dinosaurs so he was very excited for this camp to start! They both love the camps at the nature center. Joey still has hockey and karate, and Jill is continuing with dance, but this is the last camp of the summer which means things are winding down a bit!