Buddy Walk

Today we all went to the Buddy Walk at Centennial Park. According to the website "The Buddy Walk^® was established in 1995 by the National Down Syndrome Society to celebrate Down syndrome Awareness Month in October and to promote acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome." We all went as members of Team Super Coop!

We left early in the morning. Here we see Mom and Finn fighting over space in the back seat.


The first thing we did upon arriving in the park was to go down the giant slide.
Here is Nana and Finn midway down.
And here they are at the bottom.
The park has several things to do. There were AARP majorettes, a Beatles cover band called the "Wanna Beatles" and many varieties of extremely large dogs.

Finn and Coop played ball.
Then Coop's friend Zach came to visit and he sat on Finn. Finn didn't mind.

Here is the whole Super Coop Crew starting the race. Look at that grueling pace. I'm surprised that we were all able to finish.


Cooper starting strong. Coop opted to walk for the first leg of the walk.

His cousin Finn on the other hand opted to stroll the entire mile. It would certainly be shame to break a sweat.
The walk was only a mile, but it took at least an hour to finish. Reason being, we had several distractions along the way. Here is the sight of our first distraction - the Parthenon photo opt. This is a great picture if I do say so myself.
Our picture isn't quite as "picturesque."

Distraction # 2: Feeding the geese. Both boys were really into that. Cooper came prepared with half a loaf of bread. Needless to say the Geese ate well!


c


Distraction # 3: Me stopping to climb a tree that I no business climbing.

I am only kidding about the distractions, they were the best part of the whole walk! Finn and Cooper really did have a great day!


Here is Finn crossing the finish line and receiving his medal.

Group photo after finishing the race.

Exhausted from our walk, Mom and I found a nice relaxing swing. Finn didn't find it relaxing.
After the walk was over Finn played in the leaves. We really don't have any leaves in our backyard, so this was Finn's first experience with leaves.
As you can see he loved it!

Here we see that Finn has lost interest in the leaves and is making his way towards the truck.

After lunch at Schlotzski's Michael, Finn and I piled in the back of Mom and Greg's car and headed home. It was a tight squeeze, but a fun ride.

Next we went to visit Grandad and GiGi. Grandad took Finn out on the 4-wheeler. Finn, of course, thought it was a lawn mower.

Look at Michael in the background - Gabby knocked Michael's legs out from underneath him and he went down hard.
Finn and GiGi on the back porch. Finn also tried on his new T-shirt from Playa Del Carmen.

When we went inside Finn played until dinner. After dinner Gigi gave Finn a bath and then Grandad rocked him to sleep. Dad told me that after Finn finished his milk he asked to get up. Dad told him "no" and Finn laid right back and went to sleep. Thankfully he slept the entire night; first time in a week.