~Little Grand Marshal~

When Cami went to Make-A-Wish to make her official wish, she told her wish granters that ONE of her wishes was to be in a parade...read more about Cami making her wish here.  After talking with her wish granters and going over the three wishes she made, we decided that a trip to Disney World would be best for Cami.  Make-A-Wish has to get permission from Cami's Doctors and her Doc's wont give approval until she reaches maintenance.  SO we tentatively planned our vacation to Disney World in February (about the time she will be in maintenance) and put her other wishes in the back of our minds.  WELL... about 3 weeks ago I got a phone call telling me that each year Make-A-Wish is asked to select a child to be the grand marshal of the Ogden city Christmas parade.  This gave her wish granters the perfect opportunity to make another of her wishes to come true!  Let me just tell you... Cami was beyond excited!

Ogden city treated Cami like royalty.  They asked her if she'd like to ride in a float, on a horse, in a carriage, or on a motorcycle.  She wanted the carriage (surprise, surprise).  A few days prior to the parade Dillards gave her a shopping spree to pick out everything she needed to be "fancy" in the parade.  She came home with 2 new coats, a dress, a hat, gloves, a scarf, new boots, and 2 new purses (because every girl needs a casual purse and a dressy purse.. right?).  After her shopping spree, she was pampered with a manicure and pedicure and her little bald head was sprayed with pink glitter (in lieu of an up-do).  I am telling you this girl was spoiled and she deserved every minute of it!  I cant even type this without tears streaming down my face, but I am so extremely grateful to Make-A-Wish, Ogden city, Dillards, and Shannon (the hair dresser) for giving Cami this special gift.  This parade couldn't have come at a better time, Cami is undergoing her harshest round of chemo right now and has just been sort of blah latley.  This parade gave her just the boost she needed and we got to see the sparkle in her eyes come back again.  Thank you to everyone involved in making this such a wonderful night for our family, and most importantly for Cami.  

Here is miss Cami trying on her different outfit choices

Cami and "Princess Stephanie" her personal shopper from Dillards

getting pampered is a MUST after all that shopping...

-Thanks Shannon!

As the Grand Marshal, Cami rode at the beginning of the parade.  After the parade they have a ceremony to light the lights in the Christmas village and officially welcome Christmas.  It is ADORABLE!  Cami got to go up on stage with Santa and flip the switch to light up the entire city.  She was very excited about her big job, but I dont know if she was more excited to flip the switch or to get such special attention from Santa.

This is the list she made for Santa...

They asked us if we wanted a parent to ride with her, but Cami refused.  She said princesses ride by themselves.  Pat walked next to the carriage, just in case those steroids kicked in.

Ready to go.

We will be making the trip up to Ogden each year from now on to attend this parade.
It was SO cute and the kids LOVED the lights!

Here's Cam and Santa waiting back stage for their big ceremony.

Here they are flipping the switch.

Ogden city brought out two HUGE gift baskets for Cami.  Did I mention these people know how to SPOIL a girl?!?  Boy did they make her happy!

Here's a little video of her in the carriage.

Here she is at the ceremony.  Sorry, I know its long.

Cami was out before the night was over.  

Thank you Ogden city for giving her so many sweet memories to dream about!


Cami even made it into the newspaper!  Check it out here.