Olympics!!!!!!!

WHOO HOO....the day finally made it! We had been looking forward to Friday, February 19th for almost a year! Going to the Olympics was one of the most amazing and completely unforgettable things I think any of us will ever do! There is just something about watching something for years, never thinking in a million years you could be there...and then YOU ARE! Yesterday was pretty surreal, I don't think it actually hit me that I was at the Olympics until it was almost all over and I was surrounded by thousands of screaming curling fans...that's when I got all misty eyed....fully taking it all in! Of course it could have been the lack of sleep that finally hit me, but never the less....it was completely AWESOME!

We started out bright and early, leaving Edmonds at 5:00 a.m. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get downtown and take in everything before our event at 7:00 p.m.! We had to park about 35 minutes from downtown Vancouver--they were not letting any unauthorized vehicle into downtown, so you had to park off site and take the train or bus everywhere! Not being ones that are usually keen on public transit...this was a little intimidating! But, once we got the hang of it...it was actually super easy! We started off at the venue for curling...being a crazy woman, I wanted to familiarize myself with the area before it was too busy and we wouldn't be able to find where we were going...once I got my craziness out of the way, we headed downtown to check out the rest of the Olympic must sees! We started off at the Cauldron...once we found it! Actually everything was very well marked out.....we just had to be pointed in the right direction! The Cauldron was a lot smaller than we had pictured, but still awesome none the less! We took the necessary photos and then headed off for souveniers! We ended up with way too much stuff, but after all this was a once in a lifetime event, right?! We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown Vancouver taking in all the people and sights!

Around 4:00 we headed back to the Curling venue....being the over-prepared one I am..we were an hour early, but we got ahead of the game by going through security early and getting lots a great photos without hundreds of people in them! You couldn't get into the venue until an hour before the start, but they had a holding area where there were entertainers and you got to see some of the mascots up close! Once inside the venue the excitement really started! I would have never guessed Curling would be rowdy or exciting at all....but was I ever wrong! We were actually lucky enough to get to see the Canadian Women's team play...and the Canadian filled crowd was charged up! I guess this is actually a sport where the crowd is to behave more like golf, but the non-curling spectators seemed to have missed that memo! They were yelling, screaming, jumping up and down, ringing cowbells, banging on tamborines....there were times I was afraid we were going to be on the nightly news because the stadium seats we were sitting in had fallen! It was crazy fun....I'll admit, we went in to the event yesterday...going because Curling tickets were some of the cheapest tickets we could get...but after last night, I would gladly go again...we even watched two more matches today! We're hooked! It helped that we were sitting right by a professional curler last night...he explained the game, which definitely made everything a lot more enjoyable!! I am so happy we had this opportunity....we took tons of pictures in hopes that the boys will also remember this awesome thing we were lucky enough to experience!! ABSOLUTELY FANTASTICALLY AWESOME....Yep, that explains it!