Well since we like to be on the go so much, we headed back to New York City for a super fun and fast paced 3 days to represent St. Jude! Our family was asked to speak at the 2014 "Legends for Charity" Dinner which was also presenting the Pat Summerall Award to Michael Strahan. Even with having the girls miss three days of school for the trip, we didn't hesitate one bit about being a part of this event and telling a bit about Ingram's journey with cancer. We just decided to incorporate a little learning in a sneaky way with everything we did on our trip so hopefully the girls' teachers would be proud (and consider their absences excused)!
We traveled for the majority of Wednesday and then made it to our hotel just in time to see a packed lobby with all sorts of people mingling around related to the Super Bowl! It was also dinner time so you know where we went...Bill's Bar and Burgers!! It was a long and cold walk from the hotel, but with as much as we love the restaurant, we didn't mind. Once we were back, the kids were quite energized to say the least; it must have been the double digits temperature that got them so happy. But then again, it could have been their nighttime "agility runs" down the taxi stands along 35th Avenue!
Craig had to go to the NY Vining Sparks office Thursday and get some work done so we decided to go out and play while he was gone. After breakfast, we bundled up and headed out to have some fun! Lindsey asked (for the first time ever) to go to the bookstore to get a book and we jumped on it and headed straight to Barnes and Noble. We added "Library" to our school checklist and perused the three floors of the store for at least an hour before we left with Lindsey's new book..."Si-Cology 101" and she's loving it and had us cracking up with some of her and Si's little sayings!
We got all dressed up and made it downstairs to the Ballroom and met tons of great folks!! We met NFL players, coaches, ESPN and TV personalities, and many more supporters of SJ at a reception before the dinner. We even met a fellow patient who lives in the NY/NJ area who is almost 17; the best part about meeting him is that he was diagnosed with our same type tumor when he was 2 and a half and has been free of cancer for 13 years!!! This was totally amazing, a complete surprise, and the most emotional part of the evening for me; we have never met anyone this far out from treatment with our tumor...ever.
During the actual dinner, the Pat Summerall Award was given to Michael Strahan by Mr. Shadyac and then Craig and Ingram were called to the stage to share our story. Granted Craig only had about 5 minutes (and we all know he could talk for hours about SJ) to tell our story, so he was having to go pretty fast and give a very short version all while Ingram was on stage with him. Craig did a great job speaking and I get emotional each and every time, but Ingram did lots to help alleviate the sadness by his on stage performances! Hopefully all the pictures below will provide a little entertainment and expose the little trickster that Ingram truly is!
Please remember to pray for Ingram and our family on Tuesday February 11th as Ingram goes in for his MRI. This will be a very long day of testing and waiting to see if any cancer cells are present in Ingram's body.
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About 10 Minutes Into Our Flight, A Little Panic Set In As Daddy Realized
He Wasn't Going To Be Able To "Work" During Our Flight With Ingram Next To Him! |
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However, Madison Had No Problem Playing On Her
iPad And Reading Her Book! |
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| And I Got To Play With This Sweetie Pie On The Plane! |
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| We Talked About Geography And Weather As We Flew Over The Blue Ridge Mountains! |
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Then We Had A Family Art Lesson At Bill's Bar And Burgers.
Lindsey Had A Math Lesson With The Lines And Angles Of Her Wiki Sticks |
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And Madison Learned Opthamology And Designed Her Newest And Most Colorful Glasses!
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All Bundled Up And Ready To Make The Long Cold Walk To The Hotel!
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| Of Course, We Had To Work Really Hard On Following Rules So That We Wouldn't Be Sent To The Principal's Office...It Was Much More Difficult For Three Out Of The Five Of Us! |
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Madison's Excited About Being On Madison Avenue, Lindsey's Bummed Because
It's Not Her Name On The Street, And Ingram Is Pretending To Be One
Of The Million Pigeons That He's Running Around Chasing! |
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| Now For Our Physical Education Lesson... |
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| Or Is It Recess? |
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| Or Maybe Even Agility Training?? |
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School's Out Now Back Home So We're Scoping Out The NFL Hotel Headquarters
Waiting For Daddy To Get Back From Work! |
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I Guess Madison And Lindsey Are Practicing Throwing The Perfect Pass
So We're Back At P.E. Again! |
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| Which Makes Sense Since Ingram Is "Making" Madison Chase Him Again! |
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| We Found The Ballroom For The Awards Dinner And Had To Give It A Dismuke Touch! |
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Look Who Followed Us To NYC...Mr. Shadyac!
We Walked Two Separate Elevators At The Exact Same Time! |
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| Former Coach Phillip Fulmar From The University Of Tennessee! |
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| Archie Manning!! |
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| Some Amazing Hall Of Famers! |
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| Antonio Pierce And Jessie Armstead |
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| And The Star Of The Night...Michael Strahan!! |
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I Had To Include This One Too Because It Shows Just How Busy The Paparazzi Were!
The Kids And Michael All Came Out Seeing Spots!! |
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| We Love Getting To See "Mrs. Marlo" And Hear Her Talk About St. Jude's Amazing Work! |
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Mrs. Summerall Talked About Her Late Husband Pat And How Much
He Loved St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!
Mr. Summerall Hand Picked Michael For This Year's Award Before
His Death Because He Too Loves The Kids Of St. Jude. |
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| The 2014 Legends For Charity Pat Summerall Award Winner Michael Strahan!! |
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Ingram Came On Stage With Daddy And Mr. Shadyac Got A Chair For Him
While Daddy Got To Tell A Very Abbreviated Version Of Our Story..
This Is At About The First Minute of Five Minutes.... |
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| Now We're At About Two Minutes And Ingram Is Deciding He Likes The Cameras And The Audience... |
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| About 10 Seconds Later...And |
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About A Minute Later, Ingram's Pretending To Sleep And Peaking To See
What Everyone's Doing Off The Stage |
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And Now He's Down To Business With Moving His Tongue And His Mouth
Just Like He Apparently Does Anytime He See's A Camera! |
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"Hey Dad! Can I Say Something?" Ingram's Asking While Rich Eisen Is Talking
To Craig. "Well Of Course You Can!" Rich Said |
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And So Ingram Needed To Stick His Tongue Out Again As They Moved The Chair
To The Podium Out Of Sheer Excitement! |
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| Yep...He's Pretty Proud Of Himself And So Are We! |
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Ingram (age 5) And Jake (age 16)
Anaplastic Ependymoma Warriors!! |
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| Ingram Was Super Excited About His New FBI Coin That He Was Given By An Agent After The Dinner! |
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Ingram Decided To Go To Work Collecting All The Dirty Napkins While
We Were Talking To Folks After The Dinner. |
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With Lots Of Flight Delays Heading Back To Memphis On Friday,
These Two Occupied Themselves With A Big Game Of Memory AtThe Airport! |
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| And Finally He Conked Out On The Second Flight Home Late Friday Afternoon! |
