GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- At the Miller house in Goodyear, all the talk last week was about the family vacation to San Diego.

Dylan, 8, was dreaming of snagging a shark. “Once I get it out there, I’ll snag it out of the water,” he said confidently.

Kyrstin, 5, woke up the morning before the family planned to leave and begged to pack.

And Kim Miller, Dylan and Kyrstin’s mother, was just excited about seeing her large family. About 40 members of the family would be going on the trip, Kim said.

But this family vacation was not just an ordinary summer trip. It had special significance, because it was possibly the last vacation the whole family would take.

That’s because Kim was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer in October of last year. She was just 29 years old when she got the diagnosis.

“My very first oncologist in the hospital pretty much did give me a death sentence,” Kim said.

Kim wasn’t going to accept that. In her online blog, five days after receiving the diagnosis, she defiantly wrote: “I will beat this cancer. I am young, strong-willed, confident and determined.”

Nine months after she wrote that, she is still all of those things. But after breezing through the first half-year of treatment, “that last little bit’s been hard,” Kim said.

And the news about her prognosis has worsened.

“We were just recently told that most of the modern medicine that we have available is no longer working,” Kim said.

Doctors recently told Kim and her family that they should take a trip, get away from everything for awhile. Plans were made to travel to Mission Beach in San Diego.

Kim and her husband, Deron, are friends with Charlenne and Chad Waltz. Both families live in Goodyear and Deron and Chad work together at the Goodyear Police Department.

If you ask the Waltzs about Kim and Deron, they overflow with positive things to say.

“She’s a giver,” Charlenne said. “She would give you the shirt off her back.”

“They’re a great family,” Chad added. “They’re very committed to family values, bringing families together and inviting you into their home.”

But when Kim was diagnosed with cancer, both Charlenne and Chad felt “powerless” to help.

“You wish you could do more,” Chad said.

They found something they could do when they asked to pay it forward to Kim. After receiving $500 from CBS 5 News, they gave the money to Kim to help pay for the trip to San Diego and cover some medical expenses.

Kim and the family left the next day for San Diego. They’ll return this Saturday.

On Monday, Kim will go to the Cancer Treatment Center of America to see if they can help her. In the meantime, she will continue to fight.

“Even though they say Stage IV – which you don’t like to hear – it’s not a death sentence,” Kim said. “Just keep your head held high and keep plugging away at life.”

You can read more about Kim on her blog.

UPDATE: Kim Miller passed away August 27, 2009. Her funeral was held a week later in Paradise Valley. She was just 29 years old.