King of all Self-Advocates

Sammi with Chris Burke
Originally uploaded by sammi's mom

Today was the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia's Buddy Walk. Seriously, the weather could not have been nicer or more of a carbon copy of last year's Buddy Walk--blue skies, cool, sunny... And Samantha was an absolute DOLL the whole time, going napless from morning until we got in the car after 3pm. She was full of hugs, smiles and more hugs today.

The calendar was a big hit, and became totally sold out (as I knew it would), and I'll need to order more from the printer on Monday. I haven't even purchased my own copy yet!

Our Buddy Walk featured Chris Burke as Grand Marshal, and he performed with his band. Chris Burke, as many of you know, played Corky in the hit TV show, "Life Goes On", many moons ago, and travels across the country and Canada on speaking engagements and performing. He is definitely an inspiration to many parents and self-advocates, and I was really pleased to be able to have Samantha's photo taken with him at the end of the day. In this photo, she was leaning in to hug him (I told you she was huggy today!). I was little sad that I was so distracted for much of the day and couldn't really hear or see Chris' band. I had several friends come to join our team, and wanted to be able to spend time with them since I rarely see them, but unfortunately I wasn't even really able to do much of that, either.

At the moment I am so completely exhausted that I'm not even sure if anything I've written makes any sense, so I'm off to bed before my eyes completely cross and my head drops onto the keyboard with my nose resting on the hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh