Don't Stop Believin'

Special Olympics fall games was this past weekend. For the last 3 or 4 years Jeff and I have been saying that we're done being on the committee - yet we've always gone back and done it. This year when we knew I'd be 7 months pregnant and Jeff would be on crutches we decided we were finally done. However as the games got closer and closer Jeff started working harder and harder to try and convince me that we should do it again. One of my good friends was the director again this year so I finally just told her that if we wouldn't be a hinderance in our current condition we'd be up for another year. Mal said to come - So we spent Friday and Saturday up on campus.

Emily absolutely loved it. Mal made Emily her own credentials this year so she was an official member of the GOC (even if she didn't get a t-shirt for the 4th year in a row). Friday she helped hand out lunches and just had a blast doing it. She loved just being involved and helping out.
Emily sees Mallory quite often and was excited to see her this weekend. Actually, excited might be an understatement. She absolutely loved her and was always wanting to play and dance with her. Emily also got to know a lot of the other GOC members and by the end of the weekend was running around playing with them.

This year's Miss Utah was there again so we got another picture. Emily also met Miss Legacy and got a jazz ball from the Bear.

One thing Emily wanted to do all weekend was play bocce. So as soon as the competition was over we pulled out the bocce balls and played a few games. She loved it (and of course won everytime).

Olympic Town had an AMAZING face painter this year. She did the most elaborte painting and was so quick. Emily has never liked having her face painted and at first wouldn't even consider it. I finally told her I was going to do it and asked her if she'd like to too. She reluctantly agreed and after waiting in line (that never ended because she was so good) Emily got more and more excited. As she watched the woman paint she not only decided she couldn't wait to have her face painted, but she had to do it before me. She said she wanted a pink and blue butterfly. I got a red and purple butterfly. Isn't it amazing??

Friday night after the opening ceremonies there was a dance. Emily was very excited for it. She told Jeff that he had to dance with just her. When he asked who I was going to dance with she promptly said I could just watch - then later added that I could dance with Jacob (aka: her brother). I love the 2nd video where she wanted to dance alone. You can't hear it really well, but after a few seconds Jeff tells her to shake it and I love how her dancing changes. (And sorry they're so dark. There usually isn't a lot of lighting at dances).

It was a long weekend and we were all completely worn out afterwards. But we were all extremely glad we went back "for on more year." Actaully, one thing we learned from this past weekend was to not try and predict the future. This was the 7th time we've geen on the GOC and like I mentioned before, we've been saying we were done for the last 4 years. At first it was because we had baby and then because Jeff graduated from school. But we've always made it work and still been involved. Next year we'll have a 9 month old running around and who knows what else may be going on. SOUT staff kept saying see you next year and they made Emily promise to come back. But - we'll see ... it might have been our last year.