Our Trip to the Olympics!!

I'm finally posting about our trip to the Olympics! A trip up to Vancouver to visit Dan's parents was long overdue (Leah had never been there and she is almost 3!). So, what better time to go than during the Olympics?! We went from February 17 - 23, right in the middle of the Olympics. I'm so happy we went . . . . . especially since I was having some serious 2nd thoughts about going at all, with being pregnant, and our weather in Ohio being so bad (OSU was even cancelled due to snow the day before we left!) But we went, and I'm glad. We had so much fun and it was a great experience.

From the get go, Canadian pride was thrust upon us. Dan's Mom bought each of us a pair of the famous Olympic Canadian mittens. We love them!
We were even served Canadian pride ice cream to go along with Mary's homemade pies . . . . so yummy. I wish I could eat some right now . . . . especially the blueberry pie . . . . yes, I'm pregnant:)
We had thought that it was just going to be us, the Johnsons (minus their 3 oldest kids) and Amy meeting up in Vancouver . . . . but when we got there, we were shocked to find Scott, Elisha, their 2 kids, and Mike hiding underneath a blanket! Surprise!! Of course, why would they want to miss out on the party? I was doubly happy we had decided to make the trip afterall.
We only had a few days all together, so one day we decided to head on down to Richmond and check out the O-zone and the Holland House. Inside the Holland House we practiced for our 4 man bobsled run:

Another day we headed downtown on the skytrain (Scott, Elisha, and Mike had left at this point).

We sat in front, and the kids loved helping Grandpa "drive" the train. Actually, yeah, who is driving this thing?

Walking around downtown was cRaZiNesS! But so fun.

Being 34 weeks pregnant, I was worried I wouldn't last long walking around. Good thing there were friendly Canadians around to give me a lift!

The Olympic Torch

On Monday, the 22nd, Dan and I went to a semi-final women's hockey game: USA vs. Sweden. We wanted to go to an event, and this one was the easiest to go to. We again took the skytrain downtown, and I could just sit inside the arena and watch the event. It was definitely fun, and I'm glad we went!! It really got us into the Olympic spirit cheering for the U.S., even though most of the Canadian fans in attendance cheered for Sweden because they were still bitter from their loss against the USA men's team the night before. But don't worry, I made Dan cheer for the U.S.:) A big cheers for Mary for watching the girls while we went!! They had some special Grandma time which they loved. Here we are in front of Canada Hockey Place, where the game was held. All along the river there were these really impressive rock formations/towers. The Canadians sure know how to stack their rocks!

When we found our seats inside, we were a little disappointed when we realized they were on the very top row of the arena. Hmmm, this wasn't going to work. I mean, this was our view:

And we paid big bucks for these tickets! Well, not that big . . . . but big to us:) We endured the first period in the nosebleeds while staking out which seats we would move down to. So during the first intermission, we made our move and snuck past the ticket checkers (who weren't really checking tickets at all) and settled confidently into our new 3rd row seats. With this view:

Go USA!

Victory! We won 9-1.