I had so much excitement built up weeks before the Ingram’s arrival to Maui, and then the day finally came! Preston and I went to the airport and could barely contain our excitement while waiting for them inside…Preston actually ran past the security point once he caught first glimpse of his cousins and got yelled at by the guard, hehe.  We had been dreaming and planning for them to come stay with us for a while.  We got a couple of lazy days to just catch up as we waited for my parents to come into town a couple of days later.  Then the fabulous day for Hard Rock came! It turned out to be another beautiful, sunny day on Maui and I was beyond excited to wake up that day and head on over to the cafe to set up.  Hard Rock had been so wonderful and easy to work with and with the help of Jennifer Carvalho, it turned out to be a beautiful, fun and special event.  With help from my parents, Jen, and some others from Hard Rock, we were able to decorate with some fun stuff for Trek and get the party started.  The event started at 11am and ended later in the afternoon.  There was lots of eating, talking, dancing, and fun.  Chad Van Herk, his wife Liz, her mom and sister all flew to Maui for the event and for Chad to sing for Trek.  He really helped make the event special and complete.  The vibe of the day was relaxed and perfect and there was nothing left to do but love on Trek.  Between raffle items, silent auction items, t-shirts, beach balls, bracelets, Jarrett’s children’s book, Chad’s CD’s, and donations,  we were able to raise $3400 for Trek! Woohoo!! Everyone was so generous and there was so much love for sweet Trek the entire day.  The whole day was super fun and it was great to have everyone come together to celebrate Trek.

Later that evening a few of us met at the beach to light paper lanterns for baby Trek.  It was so special and beautiful.  We all made wishes and had a great time.

I plan to enjoy every day I have with Jarrett, Chelsea, Peyton, Conner, and Trek while they are here on Maui.  We have really missed them and love having them in our home.

Even though I love hearing their laughs and voices just a room away, I am more excited for them to conitue on their sweet journey as a family across oceans.

Jen and I by the “Trek” table

World balloons to greet everyone as they walked in

one of the centerpieces…they all had different pictures of Trek and the awesome Embrace Life tattoos

the raffle table

My amazing parents helping out

a view of the cafe

the beautiful beach view from the table

Jarrett reading off the winners for the raffle

lots of people:)

making a wish!

When I think of Trek, I think of everything beautiful, pure, happy, and magical.  He is just perfect in every way.  I wanted to do something special for Trek when they were all here on Maui so I asked Chelsea if I could order a bunch of the sky paper lanterns to let go one night to celebrate baby Trek.  After we both got super excited, I ordered 100 of them on Amazon, woohoo! I have only seen the lanterns on a couple of shows on TV.  I always think of the movie Tangled and how beautiful it was in that super cute love scene.  I also think of the bachelorette season when they went to the huge lantern festival in Thailand!  It was amazing to see on TV so I can only imagine to see it in person.  So beautiful and I could think of no one more perfect do one for!  Trek comes to mind every time I think of the beautiful lanterns floating up into the sky.  I wish we could hold a ceremony as large as the one in Thailand, but I know a smaller, more intimate one will be just as special.  My hope is that lots of people come out and surround baby Trek with lots of positive wishes and love as we all light a lantern and send it up into the sky.

The Hard Rock event for Trek is coming up this Saturday, May 12th from 11-4.  The paper lantern ceremony will happen that evening right after sunset at baby beach.  We would like to meet everyone there at 7.  I would love for anyone to join us on this very special night to celebrate Trek.  I will have lanterns available to hand out at the Hard Rock event.  Please keep this night open and come join us at Baby Beach on the side closest to Lahaina Town.

I cannot wait for this magical night and to celebrate baby Trek with lots of people who love him!

Don’t forget to stop by Hard Rock that day for awesome music by Chad Van Herk (www.chadvanherk.com), yummy food, raffle and silent auction items, Embrace Life shirts, bracelets and beach balls.  Jarrett’s 1st children’s book will also be available for sale; I am super excited about this (http://jarrettingram.com/2012/05/04/new-childrens-book/)!  It will be such a special and fun day to celebrate with Trek!

Sending lots of love to you baby Trek and we cannot wait to celebrate you very soon!

Another awesome fundraiser has been set up for baby Trek in Denver! Woohoo!

Johnny Rockets in Cherry Creek Mall and Park Meadows Mall are both hosting a “Dine to Donate” fundraiser for Trek for 3 entire days.  All you have to do is go in May 7th, 8th, or 9th and bring in the attached flyer to give to your waitor and 20% of your meal will go to baby Trek!  I hope lots of our Denver friends will spread the word and eat for Trek.  Thank you Mistara Markwell for putting this together!  I am still blown away by everyones support for Trek and his family, so much love!

There will also be a donation bottle set up at the restaurants for the month! soo cool!

Please see the attached flyer for more details and make sure to print one off if you can make it to Johnny Rockets one of these days.

Johnny Rockets flyer for Trek

Today is the day that Chick fil a in Brighton is hosting a fundraiser for baby Trek!

All you have to do is say you are there for Trek when you place your order and they will give 20% to Trek and his family.

The Chick fil a is located at the Prairie Center by Target- I-76 and 144th.

The fundraiser goes the entire day so stop by if you are the area and eat some yummy Chick fil a for Trek!

Thanks Chelea for the pictures and for capturing you and your sweet family eating for Trek and Papa T and his crew eating:)

Nana, Coleman, Braelynn, and Papa T eating Chick fil a for Trek! Thanks Papa T for eating twice;)

I feel it is time to start sharing about the very special Hard Rock Event coming up for Trek in May!  All of the other events for Trek have been so fun and special and I have no doubt that this one will be just pefect.  In case any of you have not heard, a very speical singer/songwriter is flying into Maui to perform at the event.  Chad Van Herk is coming!! Woohoo! Chelsea did a blog post a while back about a song that he sings that means a lot to her and reminds her of Peyton, Conner, and Trek (check out her post: ninja footprints).  As we were trying to think of a very special musician to play at Hard Rock for the event she mentioned Chad.  For me, any desire from those five must be made a reality! With the help of Jennifer Carvalho (a new friend that I have come to adore and a former co-worker and friend of Jarrett) and after a personal email from Chelsea, Chad and his wife Liz kindly accepted our request! We were all beyond thrilled! I actually danced around my home after Jen called  to tell me the good news that led to my 4 year old Preston wondering what the heck I was screaming for (I found him 5 minutes later writing Chad a letter saying thank you for singing to Trek). I guess that I already ruined the surprise for those who may not know it…but Trek will be at his event! Woohoo! I am so excited that Jarrett, Chelsea, Peyton, Conner, and baby Trek will all be here on Maui to celebrate with us all, that is what will make the event just perfect.  Jen is a Sales & Marketing Manager at Hard Rock and has been truly amazing and has handled almost everything that will take place on that special day.  It will be a day of music, dancing, eating, and celebrating for Trek, and boy does he deserve it!  I appreciate each person that is helping with the event and I know Hard Rock will help make the day magical.

Here are the details:

Hard Rock Concert Benefit for Trek

Saturday, May 12, 2012

11am-4pm

Stop by for awesome music by Chad Van Herk, yummy food, and to support Trek Atlas Ingram.

- Embrace Life bracelets, Embrace Life t-shirts, and raffle tickets will be available as well.

Please mark your calendars and spread the word!  I am excited for this event and hope lots of people stop by for a great party for Trek.

Here is Chad’s latest music video for leavin’ footprints:

http://youtu.be/p9SQ2HQTkfg

I am excited to let everyone know that I have some fabulous Trek Atlas Embrace Life t-shirts for sale in all kinds of sizes!  If you would like a t-shirt(s) please email me (Amanda) at babytrekatlas@yahoo.com and let me know how many you would like, what size, and where to ship them to.

The shirts are $15 for youth/kids & $20 for adults- plus shipping (will vary per order)

Here are the sizes:

Youth: small, medium, & large (my 4 year old can fit in the youth small and still is has some room to grow)

Adult: small, medium, large, x-large, & xx-large

I am working on getting baby and toddler sizes hopefully in the near future!

I am excited for lots of people to share Trek’s story even more while wearing these very special t-shirts! Mahalo for everyones support so far!

The front and back of the shirts

My 4 year old Preston sporting a youth small

Wow! The much anticipated day finally came today and is now over and I am all smiles!  I was blown away not only at all of the generous donations from all of the sponsors, but for all of the people that stopped by today to bid and support Trek!  I know a lot of people went home with some awesome things and it was so fun to see it all happen.  It was such a special event and so many people came to show their love for baby Trek…the easiest baby boy to love!  We ended up having 85 items up for bid and I am only left with 5!!  woohoo!  The items started at a minimum bid and there were some awesome bidding wars going on:)  I think many people walked away super happy about what they got, and were so willing to support Trek.  I had the most amazing support team today too and want to say a special thanks to Jason, Becky, Jennifer, and Cara for taking time to come help run the auction and make it a success!  And a special thank you to my honey Chet for keeping our boys happy & getting me a Starbucks:)  I could not have done it without them.  I also want to say thank you to all who donated items to the auction to make it a huge and fun success.  What a fun and exciting day! I am happy to announce that we raised $3,240 for sweet baby Trek today! Amazing!  Every minute that went into planning this event was sooo worth it and I am so happy with how it all went.  I know this will help Jarrett and Chelsea so much during this difficult time, so thanks again to everyone who took part in it!Here are a few pictures from today:)

One of the tables with all kinds of amazing gift cards and jewelry

The fun toy baskets that all the kids were wanting and signing their own names on..thanks Nana for sending them!

Electronics, Crochet items, Coffee, Scentsy, wallets, and more

some beautiful jewelry pieces

beautiful quilt by Jodi!