2.9.09
So, I vowed to be a fan, and today was the beginning day of our Special Olympics adventures! We were off to the Qwest Arena to catch some Figure Skating! I strapped Trey and Tian into our trusty stroller, and we were off, through the rain and wind. We parked on the 4th floor of a parking garage, Trey thought it was so cool to ride the elevator down, IN the stroller. (the elevator had a huge glass window to see out of while you travelled down the floors. Trey thought that was a bit scary at first, but later really enjoyed our "ride!")
After being searched by security(our diaper bag had water to make up Tian's bottle. They thought it was a bit suspicious. COME ON!) we entered the Qwest Arena. We parked the stroller in the wheelchair area, and quickly saw our friends the Young's. It was so nice to see some familiar face. Trey enjoyed seeing his friend Jaxsin and sitting next to Jaxsin's sweet and cute sister Abbey (I think Trey has a secret crush and cute Abbey)!
The Figure Skating pairs we watched were some Unified teams. Unified Teams have one disabled athlete paired with one who doesn't have any disabilities but is equal in skill level. In some pairs, you couldn't tell who was the one with the intellectual disability! Trey has a fear of anyone in a mask or mascots. Well, in the arena, there were no mascots, but their was a skater with a very large birthmark. The birthmark covered a majority of his face, and I knew this was going to freak Trey out. Before Trey saw the skater, I told him, "Remember, there are some people here that look different then us but we still love them and cheer for them." He took one look at the skater, got a little nervous look on his face, and then started to cheer for him!
One pair really pulled at my heart strings! The pairs names were announced, the figure skaters came out and began their routine. The woman was a little older, a little on the heavy side, wore pants instead of the traditional short skating skirt and wore a knee brace. Angie said to me, "Did you catch their names? They are a mother and son team!" I just wanted to cry! How proud that mother must have been of her son. To be able to skate with him, to watch his progression and to see him succeed must have been an amazing and inspirational experience!
Something that caught me a little off guard was the lack of music. The figure skaters we saw did their routines without music. I just hope the athletes were able to hear our cheers, because we were going nuts!
Trey and especially Tian grabbed the attention of two sweet women from Virginia Beach, Virginia. The just thought Tian was the cutest thing ever, and how could you not?! Tian was definitely flirting with them!
Unfortunately, we only got to watch 6 teams compete, the competition was running ahead of schedule.
After the skating ended, we walked around the Olympic Venue. A band was playing, the torch was roaring, and the kettle corn was a poppin'! (guess what we had for a late afternoon snack!) Trey was really enjoying himself until he caught a glimpse of TWO mascots! McGruff the Crime Dog and the Special Olympic mascot, an Eagle, were making their appearances, and Trey was NOT happy! He quietly cried in the back of our stroller, in fear of them. Poor little guy!
(Tian doesn't look too happy to be watching Figure Skating, but truly, he was happy the entire time!)
We had planned on watching Floor Hockey that evening with Justin and the Young's. Our families went our separate ways for dinner, came back for Floor Hockey and found out THEY finished early as well. THREE hours early! We were a little disappointed, but knew we would be back!
