This past Saturday was the CF Foundation's Great Strides Walk at Lake Hefner's Stars and Stripes park. This is the largest fundraising event nationwide for the foundation. All of the local families create walk teams honoring their loved ones with CF, and those teams raise as much money as they can for research. We started the Hayden's Heroes team for our daughter's first walk at 10 months of age. This was our fourth year to participate and we always have a lot of fun. Money is still coming in so I don't have a grand total raised for you but the event always raises well over $100,000. Our team has done about $5000 so far.
On our way to the event (Note: I always swore I would never allow stickers on my car windows. Yep, that didn't last long.)
Striking a pose upon arrival
The Fam
Hayden with her Mommo (my mother)
My friend, Danielle, and her precious son, Jackson
Ryan keeping Hayden and her friend, Megan, warm
My friend, Heather, with her husband and daughter, Yury and Iliana
My friend Stacy with her husband, Todd, son ,Thatcher, and mother, Karen
Every year, Hero of Our Heart awards are passed out to everyone with CF. This year, I was asked to present the awards as Mrs. Oklahoma. Last year we had Rumble do the honors so I felt pretty special! One by one, each CFer walked across the stage to receive their medal. Unfortunately there are always loved ones walking in memory of someone who lost their battle with CF. This year was especially sad because Missy Cannon, who just last year was our Ambassador for this walk, passed away the day after Christmas. I remember her last year speaking to the crowd, and this year I was giving a medal to her family as they honored her memory. She was only 35. It broke my heart. As a CF parent, I hate to face the stark reality of what this disease can do, and it's especially hard when it's that close to home. After the walk I told her father how sorry I was for his loss. Through tears, he told me how grateful they were for the wonderful 35 years they had with Missy. I walked away thinking "That's not enough". It was just another reminder for me why I am doing this - why I entered this pageant. It's because I decided that 36.5 years with Hayden is not good enough for me. I can't let that happen. Please say a prayer for the Cannon family as they go through this difficult and emotional time.
Here is our chapter's executive director, Celia Palmer, introducing me to the crowd.
This picture makes me laugh. It looks like the arms of the guy behind me belong to me!
You can't see her face, but here is Hayden talking to Celia before she gets her medal
Here I am getting to put the medal on her 
Hayden with her friends Eva and Megan. Could this picture be any cuter?!
Hayden with her CF doctor, Dr. Santiago Reyes. He is WONDERFUL!
With friends, Emily and Eva
Me with my bff, Kristin. I'm going to take this moment to say that I quite like my new Walmart sunglasses.
Hayden got to have some fun playing on the playground while we were there.
Just as it is every year, it was a fun, but emotional, event. We are so thankful to all of our friends who joined us and to everyone who donated to our team this year. You are all Hayden's Heroes!
Striking a pose upon arrivalThe FamHayden with her Mommo (my mother)My friend, Danielle, and her precious son, JacksonRyan keeping Hayden and her friend, Megan, warmMy friend, Heather, with her husband and daughter, Yury and Iliana
My friend Stacy with her husband, Todd, son ,Thatcher, and mother, KarenEvery year, Hero of Our Heart awards are passed out to everyone with CF. This year, I was asked to present the awards as Mrs. Oklahoma. Last year we had Rumble do the honors so I felt pretty special! One by one, each CFer walked across the stage to receive their medal. Unfortunately there are always loved ones walking in memory of someone who lost their battle with CF. This year was especially sad because Missy Cannon, who just last year was our Ambassador for this walk, passed away the day after Christmas. I remember her last year speaking to the crowd, and this year I was giving a medal to her family as they honored her memory. She was only 35. It broke my heart. As a CF parent, I hate to face the stark reality of what this disease can do, and it's especially hard when it's that close to home. After the walk I told her father how sorry I was for his loss. Through tears, he told me how grateful they were for the wonderful 35 years they had with Missy. I walked away thinking "That's not enough". It was just another reminder for me why I am doing this - why I entered this pageant. It's because I decided that 36.5 years with Hayden is not good enough for me. I can't let that happen. Please say a prayer for the Cannon family as they go through this difficult and emotional time.Here is our chapter's executive director, Celia Palmer, introducing me to the crowd.
This picture makes me laugh. It looks like the arms of the guy behind me belong to me!You can't see her face, but here is Hayden talking to Celia before she gets her medal
Here I am getting to put the medal on her Hayden with her friends Eva and Megan. Could this picture be any cuter?!
Hayden with her CF doctor, Dr. Santiago Reyes. He is WONDERFUL!With friends, Emily and EvaMe with my bff, Kristin. I'm going to take this moment to say that I quite like my new Walmart sunglasses.Hayden got to have some fun playing on the playground while we were there.
Just as it is every year, it was a fun, but emotional, event. We are so thankful to all of our friends who joined us and to everyone who donated to our team this year. You are all Hayden's Heroes!My incredibly cute Jessica Simpson wedges were provided by Dillards Penn Square
Ok, so for some reason I thought I should try to climb all of these stairs. This was not a brilliant idea for many reasons, the main ones being that I was in flipflops and I am sooo not althetic in any way, shape or form.
I'm feeling pretty good about myself here.
Ah, yes. The thumbs up. If only I'd know at the time what my calves were going to feel like the next morning. Again - no altheticism of any kind.
Ok, I really did set out to look as queenly as possible - well, as queenly as someone can look in a t-shirt and shorts - but I was NOT going to get a farmer's tan (or burn in my case) so.....
I know. Classy, right? It was hot out there! Molly spotted members of the football team and had to have a picture.
Here I am with the band, Born in November. They provided music during the climb and were awesome! 
Here's a picture of the crowd:
Here are the lovlies at the registration table:
After the first air horn blow, the men were off!
Then it was the girls' turns!
Then it was awards time!
Coach Jay Norvell
Woohoo!
It was a wonderful event - one that I really hope they do again next year. I think it really has the potential to grow from year to year. Our CF walk is this Saturday so watch for pictures soon!
Yay for big hats! They are so fun! Their only downside is that they completely shadow your face and give you really bad pictures if you are shooting with a camera that you want to throw in the trash each and every time you use it because it is a piece of junk. Whew! Now that I got that off my chest.....
Now, I just had to take a picture of this lady's hat. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but it definitely got our attention! Yes, that would be a tiny sombrero on top.
This is the beautiful hat that people could register to win that evening. I mean, how fancy would you feel wearing a hat like that?!
Here are all the ladies waiting for the announcement of the winners. We had all of their pictures of them in their hats to look over to make our decision. There is no way we could have remembered all of them on our own!
This beautiful lady won the award for most elegant. With her plum satin dress and matching hat, I'm sure you can see why. She looked so classy.
I really hate that I didn't get this lady's face in the picture, but she was our winner for best ensemble. Seriously...how do you find a dress and hat both the same exact color of turquoise? I was very impressed.
I didn't get a very good picture at all of our "most creative" winner (remember: piece of junk camera). Her hat looked like it had a big sunflower on it. It was very cute.
And here I am with our winner! Check out that hat!!! Most amazing is that she made it herself! That gained some brownie points with us judges! She won $500!
Then the drawing was held for the hat giveaway. This happy lady was the winner. I would be happy too if I'd just won that hat!
As I waited for my car, I was still in the mood to snap some more pictures
These ladies were so sweet and adorable! The lady on the left made her hat with fresh roses! She gave me one as she was leaving. She told me it was an official Oklahoma rose. I don't guess I'd ever seen one before but it was gorgeous!
It was such a fun evening. I just might have to get out my glue gun next year and show up in some crazy "Alyssa Siler original"!
With the models from the show.
It was a fun event and I think all the ladies (and gentlemen!) in the audience learned a lot about style from Mr. Boston!
