Muddin' for Matt event

Hi all!
This post won't be about stamping...or papercrafting at all.  Just so you know :)

This is about MUDDIN'!  Muddin' For Matthew.
Our nephew Matthew would have turned 21 yesterday (July 7).  We lost Matthew to leukemia in May of 2010.  His family decided to hold a birthday party/tribute/fundraiser in honor of Matthew's 21st.  Let me tell you.  It was everything that Matthew loved.
He loved dirt, mud, water and going fast through all of the those elements!  Play Hard and Never Give Up was his motto.  He did exactly that.
So...yesterday was a party that included a LOT of playing hard!  I have to admit, I was brought to tears more than once yesterday.  But, I smiled and laughed and smiled even more.

Are you ready for a lot of photos?  Go get a cold drink, sit back and relax...ok?

CureSearch is one of the foundations for which funds were donated.

Hunt of a Lifetime is the other foundation that funds are going to.

Both of those are wonderful foundations.  Doing so much for so many kids.

Lee - he was a very close friend of Matthew's.  He is still close to all of us Wittwer's.

Matthew's sister, ready to get muddy.

Getting ready to roll.

Do you see that spray of mud below the one orange flag?  Matt's Dad got soooo stuck!

Matt's uncle Tim...also stuck!

The tractor got used to pull vehicles out of the mud.  See that pickup truck?  It's actually red, underneath the mud.

The red truck.

Our sis-in-law with a mud "tattoo" courtesy of her son!

Near Matthew's car, we found this heart shape in the grass.  The grass is dark, but not burned.  It remains a mystery.  But I have my own theory.

And later in the evening...burnouts on the country road.  These were made by Matthew's car.  Matthew loved burnouts!!!   And yes...we made sure there was no other traffic on the road.

And this is a video I took (and I'm not very good at this) of one of the burnouts.  We had a wonderful time celebrating Matthew's life and the way he lived it.  He was such a strong young man.  I'll always admire him! I'm so blessed to be a member of this Wittwer family.  They're amazing.

If you stayed all the way through this blog post...Thank You!

Oh.  By the way.  This is as  muddy as I got yesterday.  Yup, I'm a wimp :)