More of April

For my birthday this year, we decided to use a one of our Joint Personal Days so that we could do what we wanted to celebrate. I decided that I wanted to go for brunch at Hershey Pantry and then drive to Washington DC to attend the Temple.

Dan let me stay home that morning and sleep in. (When we don't have to cover, only one of us has to go in for the morning portion of our schedule.) He arrived and we got ready for our outing. We did a late brunch at Hershey Pantry before heading out of town. Yum Yum!

We then got on the road. Because of the craziness of our work schedule, we get to the Temple about once every six weeks. Each time we go I take a picture of the grounds since we're capturing it seasonally. It's fun to see the changes to the landscape. Even if the trees are bare, the grounds are beautiful.

This trip was not exception to our grounds picture tradition. We decided to also take a selfie in front of the Temple. As you can see, they are not our forte.

They are all about having fun, right! At least we got a good laugh at ourselves.

The most embarrassing part is that we didn't do well with the selfies we took with our work iPad even with turning the camera to the front screen so we could see what we were doing.

Guess this one will have to do:

After completing our service in the Temple, we decided to drive into DC (hoping to miss the commute home traffic) and go to the Jefferson Memorial. Unbeknownest to us, it was smack in the middle of the Cherry Blossom Festival and we were heading straight towards all the blossoms! It was G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.!!!

We then walked around the area and the Memorial. It was a peaceful and pleasant way to celebrate my birthday; maybe even a tradition in the making.

Dan insisted that since it was my birthday I had to be the only one in the pictures. Guess that's ok since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

The following weekend was the big Cancer Care Community Walk. It was a 24-hour relay walk sponsored by the school though anyone was welcome to attend. Several students stayed the full 24-hours and a few walked over 30 miles in that time frame.

Leading up to the walk the different student homes did unique and creative fundraisers to raise money for cancer research. Some of the ideas were bake sales, sports memorabilia auction, scrap metal recycling, car washes, t-shirts, restaurant percentages, etc. With the winners receiving dinner at a popular Amish buffet, the competition ran high.

The event started on Saturday late morning with everyone doing the first ceremonial  lap together lead by cancer survivors:

The stands then began to empty:

We held a special chapel service on Sunday to close the walk after doing the final lap together. After chapel was complete, we remained in our seats to see the preliminary final count of funds raised for cancer. Can I have a drum roll please....

That's $102,417! The most amazing parts were: (1) the fundraiser was a last minute decision and we only had about 4 weeks from start to finish. (2) The students came up with the ideas and did most of the work selling, cleaning, sorting, baking, etc. (3) The students were selling to the same population for 4 weeks straight-houseparents, students, teachers, administrators, etc. It was a remarkable and Herculean effort. The goal was $100,000 and when all was said and done the final number was closer to $120,000. What an amazing experience for everyone involved!

Spring Break then onto Summer fun!