Kinda Venting Here. . .

You know what frustrates me beyond all get out? Dumb kids with too much money. i.e. Michael Phelps, Alex Rodriguez, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown etc. These dumb celebrities who are supposed "role models" to the nations children who constantly mess up. And not just minor mishaps, but things like pornographic photos, smoking marijuana, taking steroids, beating their girlfriends, just to name a few. Why do people constantly look at these "kids" and think they're so wonderful? Companies beg them to make an appearance on a commercial for them or have a photo shoot with them. And then, they realize their mistake when this kid, with too much money, messes up and has an embarassing public mishap, and they have to retract their sponsorship. It just makes me so mad and sad to see that. And then I have a shining glimmer of hope. Amazing children, who have beat all odds, and do amazing feats. This last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Dallin and I went to Boise. Dallin had a field trip for a trade and policy class and went to the State Capital building to witness how the process of passing a bill worked. Me, being the wimpy wife, didn't want to be home alone for 3 days, so I tagged along. We called up Dallin's aunt and uncle, Corey and Michelle Kent, and they opened their home to us for our time in Boise. They told us it might be a little crowded though, because they were hosting an athlete and a delegate from the Netherlands for the Winter Special Olympics! We were so excited! I had no idea, going into this though, how much exposure I would get to these amazing athletes. These are the true heros of our day. These children with disablities who learn another language, that's right, I said LEARN ANOTHER LANGUAGE! I have trouble learning another language and I don't have any disablities whatsoever. But not only that, they hold jobs, speed skate, ski, power lift, ride horses, play the Wii, etc. I was in constant awe and amazement as I saw these wonderful people overcoming their disablity and performing these great feats that even I can't do. It was a very emotional experience for me. When I see accomplishment like that, I want to shout it from the roof tops and let everyone know how truly amazing these individuals are. So, there you have it. My vent for the day. The true role models that we and our children should look too. People like Gerben (pronounced: hair-ben with the sound like you're about to hock a lougie :)) and Rick and Natasha and Sarah. These beautiful young men and women from the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, China, Belarus, Iran, Taipei, Hungary, Italy, America, etc. These young men and women who we could stand to learn MANY lessons from. These should be our real role models.

Chinese Taipei Athletes meeting with their coaches before skating a few laps!

Outside of Ice World, in Boise, with all the Special Olympic paraphanelia

Gerben (blue coat and red, white and blue scarf) signing autographs at Corey and Michelle's kids charter school. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He was so excited to do it and the kids thought they were on cloud 9. He was signing papers, arms and shoes. :)

Waiting for the Olympic Torch to be run into it's last destination before the Opening Ceremonies, Eagle High School.

All the Netherlands athletes lining up for the torch to be run through. (They're all in Orange)

Sweden's Floor Hockey Team. They started singing, what I assume, is their National Anthem, and as soon as the Netherlands athletes heard it, they battled. :) They were not to be outdone. They proudly (and loudly) sang their National Anthem. It was really neat.

The Olympic Torch

The Athletes at Eagle High made a tunnel for the Torch and all the Olympic athletes to run through at the end of the assembly.

The HUGE semi truck that followed behind the torch runners.

Me and one of the delegates from the Netherlands. He told me to show this to Dallin and make him jealous. :) If you look closely, you can see some red, white and blue stripes on my cheeks. That's the national Flag for the Netherlands. We all had those painted onto our cheeks to show our support. :)

This is just a video of the speed skaters practicing.




And this is the Olympic Torch being run in to Eagle High. Sorry about all the screaming, it was kind of loud :)