Walk to Defeat ALS, Lubbock, TX

Lots of Vinson and Holly family members gathered at Buddy Holly Park in Lubbock on Saturday morning to participate in the ALS Walk to Defeat ALS. The walk raised over $25,000 to go toward finding a cure for this disease that took Ed's dad in 2007. Our team name was "Granddad's Gang," and we all wore team t-shirts. We picked red since it is a fairly gender neutral color; unfortunately, several of the other teams also chose red, so you'll notice LOTS of red shirts in some of the pictures. Here are some of the highlights of our Saturday together honoring LaVern Vinson: Here are Meaghan and Jackson with their Granddad's Gang t-shirts on ready to head for the park. Just as I snapped the picture, Jackson did what his Daddy taught him!
The walk was at Buddy Holly Park which is part of the Canyon Lakes area. It was very pretty, but got rather warm before it was all over. Believe it or not, there were actually some hills (or maybe just inclines) we had to go up, so I guess Lubbock isn't totally flat after all!

Here are just a few of the Vinson/Holly family members gathering for the walk. The lady is front is Vi, Ed's mom. I think all the red shirts shown here are actually part of our team.

Jim and Ruby Barron--Ruby is LaVern's sister who also lives in Midland.

Emily and Jackson are holding hands getting ready for the walk. Emily started out in her stroller and was content to stay in it. Jackson started out walking but ended up in his stroller too.Here are just some of the walkers that stretched out over the walking path around the park. Most of the walkers did just that--walked--no hot-dog joggers on this adventure, thank goodness.After the walk everyone enjoyed just hanging out and having a chance to visit with each other. Here are Granddad's 4 great-grandchildren (Emily, Jackson, Kooper, and Ryleigh). The little one on the far right is Ed's cousin Ron Holly's granddaughter, Audrey.Jackson is being the helpful big cousin and showing Emily how to drink out of Nana Jo's water bottle. He told me that Emily got all wet, but it didn't seem to bother her.It can't be a Vinson family get-together without a meal, so we all headed to Rosa's after the walk.

Vinson Mini-Reunion in Lubbock

Our family decided to arrive in Lubbock a day early for the ALS walk so we would have a little time to spend with each other. Ed & Jo drove in on Thursday afternoon and picked up Michael, Meaghan & Jackson at the airport Thursday evening. We rented a suite at the Residence Inn so we could all be together with plenty of space. Ed's mom drove in Friday morning, and Stephanie, Ken & Emily came over after they got off work at noon on Friday. Here are a few pictures of our time together, enjoying each other but especially the little ones. Of course, the first thing we did when we got together was hit the mall!

We all had bags to carry, so Jackson wanted to carry one too.

Here Jackson is riding Clifford the Big Red Dog. He is perfectly content to just sit in these rides without having them actually run, especially since he likes to go from one to the next rather quickly--not quite worth 75 cents.

Here is Grampa with his two cuties.

There's always time for our Vinson get-together friendly game of Hand & Foot.

Jackson had a lot of fun going up and down the stairs, so when Emily came over he had to show her how to play...sure was lots of giggling going on.

High School Culinary Arts Kitchen

Ed has been working with the school for over a year to change the old Home Economics Kitchens into a comercial style kitchen. The students will learn here to prepare for working in the food industry in the area. After all the frustration of dealing with the State and the restrictions of red tape the project is finally operating. Though a few details are still being worked out the students will be serving their first meal today and they are really happy to be cooking in their new kitchen.

We Ran for the B.E.A.C.H.

Ed and I did the Ruidoso Breast Cancer walk this morning and were joined by two of our church friends, Linda Greene (a breast cancer survivor) and Ann Beevers.

Here are a few pictures of our fun morning.

Our team: Linda, Ann, Ed, Jo Beth (our T-shirts were all XL, so I wore a real beach shirt from Cozumel because mine was too large to be comfortable).

Half the fun of the run/walk was the pre-run visiting, of course. We should

have won tropies for that!

There was a big crowd for the event. It was a wonderful morning for it--about 53 degrees but with the sun beginning to warm us up. We walked through midtown just past the first bridge of the Upper Canyon area (uphill all the way). Fortunately, it was downhill all the way back.

Yay! We made it all the way. The thing that made us the "tiredest" was all the talking we did over the course of the 3 miles.

When we crossed the finish line (time 53:27) we were told that Ann came in 3rd place for the 70+ age category. We were not trying for any records (obviously), but there were still LOTS of people behind us.

Ruidoso Fire Station Mural

On Thursday, September 11, the new Ruidoso Fire Station unveiled a mosaic tile mural that was just completed by local artists. This mural is in tribute to the many firefighters who lost their lives during the 9-11 terrorism attack of the Twin Towers in NYC. This mural is incredible!

Memory Quilt

Today I picked up 2 quilts from a lady who made them for Gail and me out of our mother's clothing. They are so pretty and mine looks so good on our guest room bed. I can look at all the pieces and remember just exactly which piece of clothing of Mother's it is and even remember her wearing it. We used mostly her everyday clothes, but also a few of her nice dresses. The solid green and blue pieces are linen dresses, the last ones that I helped her pick out. She was always very hesitant to buy anything to wear unless I told her it looked good on her.