Autism Awareness Day 2009

My family participated in the First Annual Tallahassee Walk for Autism on Autism Awareness Day last year. It was super important to me that we be a part of that, since both kids had just been recently diagnosed. And if you're wondering why I didn't post about this a year ago, the reason is because we still hadn't told some of our family about the diagnoses and this wasn't the way we wanted to tell them. Anyhow, the whole thing was pretty exciting, since Dan Marino and the Lt. Gov were supposed to be walking with us, although Dan was held up by bad weather and didn't make it until the press conference. We didn't find out that he wasn't coming until just before we started for the capitol, but that couldn't dampen our spirits. We walked from the FSU College of Law building to the capitol, where Dan Marino and Gov. Crist were giving a press conference afterwards. It was rainy out, but we brought our umbrellas. There was a lot of press around too and my dad even ended up on TV! It was a special day and I am thankful that we were a part of it.

These pictures are in no particular order since they got out of order when I uploaded them and it's a pain to try to rearrange them all...just a little disclaimer there. :) The kids were so cute and got a lot of attention in their wagon with their balloons.

I was sitting right in front of Dan Marino (probably 30 feet back) at the press conference, which gave me a nice view. :) My pictures didn't turn out very well though because of the poor lighting and I guess my crummy flash. Anyhow, he looks even better in person!

Dan Marino has a 21-year old son with autism. You can find out about their story and his foundation here.

Off we go! It was a good turn out considering the crappy weather!

William took this picture of us. He actually took a lot of pictures that morning, since we waited over an hour for the conference to start. The kids were SO good all things considered. The TV cameramen (smack in front of us) asked if they could film the kids and of course, we said yes, but they didn't make the final edit on the news. :(

It was childrens' week at the capitol, so the foyer was covered in artwork by school kids.

Finally, nice and dry inside the capitol!

Technically, they took a 'ride' for autism! :)