Happy Aunt & Uncle Day 2011

HAPPY AUNT & UNCLE DAY!!!

Never heard of Aunt & Uncle Day?  Its ok if you haven't... we made it up.  :)  If you have been following our story for this past year, you may remember last year's first Aunt & Uncle holiday.  We (Sean and I) decided to start this tradition and make it an annual holiday in our family, as a means to remember Whitney.  April 16th was Whitney's due date, and although she came into our arms a few months before that, we still wanted to remember the day.  

This year we are so excited to celebrate the aunts and uncles who love both Whitney and Gianna so much!  Though most of their aunts & uncles have yet to hold either of them (except for Megan, who did get to hold Whitney when she was born)-- Whitney in heaven and Gia here on earth-- they love our girls so much, and we are so thankful for them!!

Sean and I decided to make some special cookies for the Aunts & Uncles this year.  You can look back at our post from last year to see what we made for them then.  We had a great time baking Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Snaps.   The chocolate snaps are a favorite childhood recipe that Sean's mom (Whitney & Gianna's Grandma Jill) used to make a lot.  They are Sean & Kyle's favorite cookie (and maybe Audrey's too?).  I know our's didn't quite measure up to Jill's delicious dessert, but they were made with love and remembrance, and hopefully that counted for a lot.  ;)

Here are a few pictures from when we were making the cookies.  Today, we are celebrating and loving the aunts and unlces in our girls' lives who love them so much!  We love you all, Megan, Eric, David, Audrey, Kyle, Anne, Dave, Amy, and Emily.  :)

Walk To Remember, L.A. Recap

Last weekend, Sean and I headed down to Long Beach for the Walk To Remember, L.A.  It was such a great weekend, and the walk was a huge success!  I guess I will start at the beginning...

We headed out on Friday morning (after my wonderful husband got up and cleaned the house for me!) for L.A.  We were hoping to beat rush-hour traffic in the city, but it turns out, the worst time for the 405 is between Noon and 2 p.m..... the precise time we were passing through.  It was insance!  But Sean did a great job in some really stressful traffic situations, and I am so thankful to him for driving us all the way there!

We checked into our hotel-- the AVIA.  It was such a cute boutique hotel!  We LOVED it!  We explored the area around the hotel... there was a lot to do!  We drove around a bit and found a place to lay out on the beach.  We brought our books and enjoyed an evening in the sand.  It was wonderful!  

 

 

This was the most comfortable bed in the WORLD!

And this was an AWESOME bathroom!

The next morning, we headed to the beautiful park where the walk was held.  A sweet friend I met through an online support group, Cassie, is the founder of the walk.  She did such an incredible job with this whole thing... I was thoroughly impressed with every detail of the event!  She thought of EVERYTHING!  

One of the best parts of the day was getting to meet my "online friends" and havin them become "real life friends."  Shannon C drove up from down South for the Walk, and it was a great time to finally meet these wonderful women in person.  We've shared so much through the past year it was great to just hug them!

Cassie started the memorial service with a welcome for everyone, then it was my turn to speak.  I got to share Whitney's story with everyone there... I even made it through without crying!  Before I went up to speak, everything was making me teary.  There were a lot of cool booths with memory things to look at, and I just had to stay away from them until after I spoke.  Sean was such a great support and kept telling me that we had the whole ride home to cry, so I could hold it together for 15 minutes!  (He is really my best half.  My favorite everything.)  And for the most part, I did.  However, after watching a video of me speaking, I realized that I said "um" like, um... well, a lot!  But Cassie told me it wasn't noticable while she was watching me in person.  Regardless, I felt so blessed to have been asked to share our story!  Thank you Cassie for the opportunity!

After I spoke, Cassie and Kassi read the names of all the angel babies we were remembering that day.  There were so many of them.  There is just so much power and emotion in speaking the names of our babies.  Sweet Whitney was the last name read (alphabetical, of course!) and I just loved hearing it.  

After the names were read, we started the walk.  All along the path, the babies' names were on signs the whole way around.  We stopped to take some pictures with Whitney's beautiful sign.  Just keeping it real--we're smiling in this picture, but it still sucks to be posing with this sign instead of our baby.  But since this is just the way things are and we can't change them, I am thankful for events like this that give a "time out" to specifically stop and think about her.  

Thank-you Cassie for such a wonderful event!  You poured a ton of hard work into this and it really showed!!

We also took some name pictures for Whitney while we were on the beach the night before...

<3 you baby girl.