Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Kick Cancer's Booty Party!!


After 6.5 weeks of going up to the University of Utah extension at Daybreak every day M-F, my dad finished his last day of radiation!!! We were the recipients of many blessings during that time, my dad especially, but we are all thrilled he is done and that he made it through with only minor fatigue and some hair loss. We are all completely in awe of our dad and what he has conquered over the last 2.5 months. We know there is still a long road ahead of us, but we just passed the first major checkpoint! 


So in order to celebrate this monumental occasion, we decided to have a "Kick Cancer's Booty" party! Our entire theme and focus was to kill the cancer, and with Halloween right around the corner we were able to find lots of skull/death/brainy things to go along with it....Our party was complete with skull tablecloths, skull straws, Brain Freeze floats, Brains in a Blanket, Radioactive Brain, Brain Gummy Candies, Watermelon Brain, and Hershey Kisses so we could "Kiss Cancer Goodbye!"















The centerpiece of the table was my dad's radiation mask...aka his Nacho Libre mask. After Jeff gave all the kids a scare with it, they all took turns trying it on....pretty sure my dad is done trying that thing on! 


Dad's Kick Cancer's Booty support team....(not pictured here are Jordan (Texas), Lindsey (Denver) and their respective families and Alex (Paraguay)...we missed having them here with us but know they were here in spirit giving that cancer a round-house kick to the face!)

Ryan, Katie, Bailee, Tyson, Davis

Jeff, Kim, Payton, Boston, Miles

Chris, Whitney, Jack 

Greg and Lexi

Mom, Sean, and Dillon 

Aunt Pat and Aunt Michelle

The Grandkids






After the brain food frenzy, we played a few games. For the first "Kill the Cancer" game, we tied balloons with the word "Cancer" written on them to the kids' legs and then had them chase each other and try to pop the balloon so they could "kill the cancer." They had a blast doing it!




In fact, they had so much fun that the adults decided they wanted to try! We all tied a cancer balloon to our leg then formed a circle and shouted "Go!" I wish we had pictures of the madness that ensued but just imagine 13 adults running like mad around the yard trying to "kill" each others' cancer balloon. Very entertaining, slightly unsafe, but incredibly fun :) 



Death to the cancer!!!

After our "Kill the Cancer" balloon game, it was time for our brain pinata! The kids all took turns killing the cancer of our brain pinata....it only took one round through the kids until our brain pinata was raining down sweet, edible cancer cells...too bad that can't be real life!




Last but not least, as it was his last day of radiation, my dad got this certificate of completion. I had to laugh when I saw that because a) seems like someone going through 6 weeks of radiation should get a little more merit than that and b) this is definitely not a certificate of completion one would ever want. 

BUT the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this actually was a special little piece of paper...

This paper tells people that my dad is courageous. 
It tells them he is a fighter. 
It tells them he is strong. 
It tells them he can beat the odds.
 It tells them he doesn't give up. 
It tells them he has more physical and mental stamina than they could ever wish for. 
It tells them he is a hero in so many people's eyes, especially his kids.
And it tells them he is braver than they could possibly imagine. 

Suddenly this little piece of paper has a lot more value in my eyes and says so much more about my dad than the words that are written on it. He should display this with pride. Because we are fiercely proud of him. He is our IronDad. 

2 comments:

Jennica said...

I didn't realize this was an ACTUAL, OFFICIAL certificate. I thought it was something that AK made up. It's just like her to have a certificate of completion. She's just cute like that! Fun par-tay! Love the theme, games and decos.

Brent Nielson said...

Cancer has no chance against your great family! Not even close.