2009 World Special Olympics

The new phrase in our house is "Go Canada!" We were so fortunate to be able to participate in the host town portion of the special olympics for the 2009 world games that were held in Boise. Host town was the opportunity for families to house the athletes and coaches of different countries for a few days before the games began. We got to house the head coach from the Canadian figure skating team, Janet Collins, and one of their top athletes, Darlene Jakubowski. They were so much fun that we wanted to keep them all week. Of course Kendra had to show off her tarantula right away, and Sean gave Janet a hard time about her "eh's", but they were gracious and put up with our loud and crazy family. Friday, after we took Janet and Darlene to the rink, Kendra and Brooke asked when their "cousins" would be back. That's how we felt - like we had family staying with us. All of us, with the exception of Megan, were able to see Darlene skate on Thursday, February 12th. She was awesome! It was so fantastic to just be there supporting the athletes. We were able to get tickets to the opening ceremony on Saturday, February 8th, and it was the best party I've been to in a long time. We laughed and cried and danced and cheered. What a great event for our family to participate in; we will look forward to more ways that we can be involved and inspired by Special Olympics. The kids especially loved dancing with Darlene on the DDR, and watching Marry Poppins. Our family can now say the we are fans of Special Olympics.