The Olympics were held from February 8 - February 24, 2002. My volunteer assignment was in the Athlete’s Lounge at the Delta Center (known as the Salt Lake Ice Center during the Olympics, and now the Energy Solutions Arena), which housed the figure skating and short track speed skating. Yes, that means that Apolo Ohno, Sarah Hughes, Michelle Kwan, Sasha Cohen, Todd Eldredge, Michael Weiss, Timothy Goebel, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Elvis Stojko, and Evgeni Plushenko were my “kids” during that time. It was so much fun! Apolo has done so well since then – every time I see him, I remember him as the little 19-year-old who came into the lounge looking for food! :)
We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the athletes, but there was one day that we were allowed to take our cameras to take pictures of the different spots in our venue. Here are a few of mine, including this one with Gail and the late Larry Miller, who would regularly come around and visit us at the different areas at the Delta Center.
With this being the 10 year anniversary of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, there have been a lot of events held around the Salt Lake valley and in Park City. Unfortunately, because of our other responsibilities and commitments, we were not able to make it to any. However, on Thursday, February 16, as we were leaving the rec center, we realized that was the day they were having an ice show there. The Olympic mascots were in the lobby, so I took a few blurry pictures with my cell phone camera.
My friend, Melissa, took her kids to most of the 10 year anniversary events. You can read her recaps and see her fun pictures here and here.
Our cub scout pack meeting for February was celebrating the 100th birthday/anniversary of the Boy Scouts. I talked about things that were happening in the country 100 years ago, and then we had a special guest speaker who has been involved with scouting for over 50 years! He has a fun collection of scout stuff from the past 50 years, so he talked about the changes in uniforms, awards, books, etc. He spotted Ryan in the front row with all of his arrow points and called him up as a "helper." He had no idea that Ryan was the cubmaster's son! He just saw the long line of arrow points and called on him, pointing out the long row of arrow points. Of course, Ryan loved it!
After our guest speaker finished speaking, we played a couple of fun birthday games and then had birthday cake. I think it went very well.
Ryan and I had a wonderful experience in February, due to the generosity of a lifelong friend. My friend Curtis has season tickets to the Jazz games, and his seats are just a few rows behind the Jazz bench. He was unable to attend a game one night, and gave us his tickets!
Curtis is also involved with several philanthropic organizations, including some with Thurl Bailey, former Jazz player and current Jazz commentator. Curtis not only gave us his tickets, but made arrangements for us to meet Thurl during the game. We also met Pace Mannion, former University of Utah player, who is now a commentator with Thurl Bailey. When we went up to the area where they broadcast, there was a crowd of people around watching and hoping for an autograph or a picture. Curtis told us to walk right up to the security guard, tell him that Curtis had sent us, and he’d let us in. He did! We had fun taking pictures on the set and getting autographs. The crowds waiting were very jealous, and we felt like VIPs!
Ryan was also thrilled to find out that Thurl was number 41 when he played for the Jazz…Ryan’s number this year on Jr. Jazz!
Fast forward to now – the 2008 Olympics in Bejing. Four more years of Ryan taking swimming lessons and becoming a better swimmer; four more years of Ryan understanding the significance of the Olympics and of the difficulty of the events; four more years for Michael Phelps to prepare for this moment. Once again, whenever the TV shows the pool, Ryan asks if it is one of Michael Phelps’ events. Actually, most of the time, he knows exactly when Michael Phelps will be swimming. If he is, we stay home and watch the event.
Most of you know that Ryan has a love of superheroes. He has several superhero costumes, and rotates through them. Although I haven’t let him see the new Batman movie, he has spent much of the summer in his Batman costume. So we chuckled when my mom saw this Bagley cartoon in the Salt Lake Tribune this week….jpg)
Oh, and this is the wallpaper on Ryan’s laptop…
Ryan is a great little swimmer. Since he was a baby, we’ve spent time in the water, and he has a love of the water and an innate comfort in the water. He loves swimming lessons, and is pretty consistently the best swimmer in class. In fact, his teacher last session wrote on his final evaluation: “Ryan has the best front crawl that I have seen all summer!” He was pretty happy about that. Today Ryan’s teacher told the class that they would be starting on the Butterfly stroke. She mentioned that it was a difficult stroke, but that they needed to have a good attitude and try it. Ryan immediately answered, “Michael Phelps does the Butterfly stroke!” Yes, he does. And if Michael Phelps does it, Ryan will do it.
