My next installment of the St. Jude Marathon Weekend...
The Hero's Pasta Party was Friday night before the race. Veronica and Staci (Jake's mom).

Jake's Mo with her tat, "Remembering Jake!".

Our fearless leader, Karl. (Yea, I know it's not the greatest picture quality)

The more I look at this picture, the sadder everyone looks. I think I told them I was taking the picture, they are all looking at me...Do you see anyone smiling??? They were all happy to be there...I just don't understand. Anyway, this was our table at the dinner.

Precious little Maddie (Jake's little sister) and Aunt Mo having a good time.

We met some new friends this year, Tammy and Danny. This is their first year as TEAMJAKE members and I think they enjoyed themselves. They both ran in the half marathon.

Brandon and Zach. This may have been about the time Brandon was trying to see how far a M&M would fly when being shot from a spoon.

Karl accepted the plaque for the Top Fundraising Team-3rd Place. GO TEAMJAKE!!!

Jake's JinJin.

This is just part of the team. Some didn't make it to the Pasta Party and some didn't make it in the picture.

How awesome is this picture??? I love it! For sure, Maddie will grow up to be a big supporter of St. Jude.

This is the plaque TEAMJAKE got for our money raising efforts. YEAH...GO TEAMJAKE!!!
After the pasta dinner we went to our usual meeting spot, McDonald's. Every year since I've been going we (the cheerleaders) bring all the signs in and take over the back corner. They don't seem to mind at all.

Mo was making new signs to put on the route so the runners (and walkers) could see them and remember how much Jake's family appreciated what they were doing.

Jake and Garrett did their part as sign makers.

This is one of the new signs Mo made. Melissa was holding this sign while we cheered on the marathoners and half-marathoners. Some of them would slow down to read it and some would just smile, some would yell "Team Jake", some would raise their hands, some would almost cry but everyone one would pick up their pace. Just read it and when you think you are having a bad day, remember what it says. One of my favorite signs says "Smile, Jake always did".
Mo is working hard on the signs and Staci is supervising. And a fine job they both did.
Staci, what are you doing? What do you have in your nose??
I think Mo may have been looking for a black Sharpie. She quickly decided on another color...any other color.

After the signs were finished, we took our stack and headed out to put them around the route. We did pretty good this year, too. We didn't get lost near as many time as we did the years before and I did not go the wrong way down a one-way street, not even once.
I'm going to try to wrap this up on the next post. I guess it really just depends on how many pictures of the half and full marathons I decide to add. The only ones I have from the 5K are the ones I "stole" from
Mo's blog.
Still BELIEVING,
Charlene