What a wild rumpus it was!!(and still more pictures!)

Oh, my, gosh!! There would be no way I would be able to encapsulate this weekend into a post, especially without boring you all to death so I will hit the high points. Even with the abridged version I am sure to keep you here a lot longer then most would like. You do have lives and days to attend to, I am sure. I will try to let our pictures do the talking for us. I hope they give a small glimpse into the the prevalent theme of the weekend. That theme would definitely be joy. A lot of pride along with that joy too. And blessed beyond words, definitely blessed. Throw in a little crazy,hectic and insane, at times, and you get the idea. My parents anniversary celebration was wonderful and touching. Filled with laughter and love. How lucky we were to all gather to celebrate such an incredible milestone. We didn't head out for San Diego until about 9:30 pm so that put us at check in at the hotel at around 12:30am, yikes! We forgot Joe's melatonin (natural sleep aid), double yikes, so he talked himself into exhaustion at about 1:15 am. We had two rooms, 9 people and we had to be up and out of there by 7:30 am. Showered, fed, packed checked out. Well, we were in the car at 7:35 am, not bad. Good thing I am a drill Sargent, actually that's the kind version of what I have been known to be referred to as! Everyone was amazing. Especially the little ones. Especially Zoey. What a traveler. After a drive, a walk , a shuttle and another walk, we arrived. The 11th annual Rock N Roll Marathon. Jess' start time was 6:30 am. The older ones, Caitlin, Taylor, Caitlin's boyfriend Danny and Jess' boyfriend Matt decided to find her at one of the mile check points. Her pace made it so by the time we arrived she already passed mile 13 so they headed to mile 22. Matt caught up to her . Spoke briefly to her and she let him know she was a little disappointed, she was off her pace but plugging along.Extremely tired but plugging nonetheless.Mark, the boys, Zoey and I stayed near the finish line and enjoyed the festivities. 1o's of thousands of people. Quite the event. I was so excited, so nervous and so anxious to see her. Well, 4 hrs. 28 minutes after starting her very first marathon, Jess crossed the finish line. We got it on video. All of it. Including a little throw up from complete over exertion. Sorry to be graphic but in some weird way it speaks to the limits Jess was able to push herself to and through. But there she was, my baby. I was so proud of her. I am always proud of her. But today, wow, she was amazing. We headed to the Team in Training tents. What a neat group. All so supportive. All raising money for incredible causes. We took tons of pictures. Savored the moment and then headed out. Joe decided to throw in a high fever to end the day. Threw up in the car as an added bonus.I have no idea what that's about. Tomorrow might tell more. Jake decided to throw up as well while watching America Funniest Home videos because he was laughing so hard. So that was nice. Maybe now that I think about it maybe throwing up might be the theme of the day rather then joy. Kidding. Zoey, well she was a dream. Content. Happy. No seizures. In fact, since I have come to hate counting days and numbers of seizures I have stopped all together. However, I believe it has been almost 5 days or more since we have seen any type of movement or anything. We'll take that. Great days for what they are , seizure free, for the moment. The big kids. They are great too. Everyone was a real trooper. Considering we packed in a whole lot of stuff in a very short amount of time. But it was some really wonderful stuff. I end the day so full. Full of joy, love,awe. I am astonished by the strength and abilities of my family, of my children, on so many levels. Some may pity us at times. Some may feel sorry for us at times. Some might even feel sad for us. But what I really want people to feel is envious of us. Not in a conceited way do I say that. It is in a way that I really believe that through all that God has placed before us over the last 15 months He has bestowed real gifts of opportunity in front of us as well. Opportunities that have allowed us to see things from an entirely different vantage point. A chance we might not have had. To look at life slightly differently. Gifts to cherish and savor, each and every moment we share together and this weekend was definitely one to cherish and savor.