Relay For Life 2013

Last night was the York County Relay For Life.  We gathered early in the afternoon to set up our camp.  We had a horrible experience in the rain last time where it took us hours to set up and meanwhile everyone and our stuff was standing around in the pouring rain.  Thunderstorms and showers threatened us this relay as well.  It turns out that downpours appeared on the radar all around us but other than one 5 minute drizzle early in the evening and a shower around 2am when we were already holed up in the tent playing a game of Yahtzee, we remained completely dry.  Even driving home in the morning the streets of Portland were drenched.  I commented that nobody would believe us when we said we stayed dry!

Here are a couple shots of our campsite:

There was a short opening ceremony and then I joined my mother and best friend out on the track.  They are both cancer survivors.  My favorite part of relay is walking that first lap and seeing people lined around watching us walk by and clapping for them.

I also really enjoy the luminary ceremony when the lights are dimmed, the bagpipe player walks the track and the names are read of those honored.

There was silliness on and off the track:

At the last relay we were drenched when we took a team photo.  We really wanted to recreated that picture this year in a much sunnier setting:

And here is the entire Cacklin' Hens 4 A Cure Team!