10 years ago...

I figured that if this was big enough to make the news then it must be big enough to make the blog...
First of all, I remember when it was announced that Utah would host the 2002 Winter Olympics.  I had just gotten married a few weeks earlier and our photographer, Ryan, stopped by our house (aka "the Compound") to deliver our pictures.  Ryan knocked on the door and came in for a few minutes to show me the pictures.  The TV was on in the background and we stopped ohh-ing and ahhh-ing over the pictures just long enough to listen to the big announcement.
7 years and a scandal or two later Salt Lake City was the host city for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
We missed most of the scandal business.  We had moved to Mo and then to MI for school.  During Rick's 4th year of medical school, we moved all of our belongings into storage and lived in Utah for about 8 months.  (Well, the girls & I lived in Utah while Rick hopped around the country doing elective rotations for school.  He lucked out and managed to get an easy rotation during February which is when the Olympics were taking place.
I got so into the Olympics.  I saved all of the newspaper articles (and I still have them--I have no idea why...)
We followed the route of the torch from Athens to Salt Lake City (not literally, just on TV, of course).  I remember them reporting live on TV when the torch arrived in Utah, at Delicate Arch.  The Native American music playing in the background.  We took note of when the torch would arrive in Provo, and made plans to be there.  We created our own torch out of an empty paper towel roll, some foil, and some gold plastic wrapping paper (some things never change).  We bundled up and took Summer down to LaVell Edwards Stadium to freeze our tails off while we waited for the Torch.  It was me, Kris, Kyoko, and Summer.  And 10,000 other crazy people.  Mostly BYU students.

It was before the days of cell phones/instead information feed.  We just stood around for about 4 hours trying to stay warm.  There were some BYU students that were camped out next to us.  They were smart, they brought hot chocolate.  They shared.  Poor Summer.  She was only 3 feet tall and couldn't see a darn thing.  The (handsome) BYU student held Summer up on his shoulders for a while so she could see.  After what seemed like FOREVER, we got the message that the torch was on it's way through the parking lot and into the stadium.  They had the route blocked off.  We started to see people running along ahead of the actual torch.  One of them was Governor Leavitt.  Handsome BYU student just tossed poor little Summer into the Gov's arms while I quickly snapped a picture:

I'm not known for my fantastic photo taking skills.  Considering that this was a one chance shot, I did OK.  I actually sent this picture to the newspaper and they printed it!!

Waino, Kristine, Kelli

Kristine managed to get us tickets to one of the events, a ski event in Park City.  We got up at like 4 am to get up there, get parked, get through security, and get a good spot...only to learn that the event was postponed due to high winds.  No worries.  About 5 days later, we did the very same thing.  It kinda felt like we got a 2 for 1 deal.  It was super neat to attend an actual event.  But, it was more than just that, there are all sorts of things going on between the skiers as far as entertainment.  And the people watching...the best.  oh, and I can't remember the exact event, but the Finnish team dominated.  I probably have a newspaper article about it somewhere.

Brandi & Hunter

One evening during the Olympics, my family went up to Salt Lake to see the medals plaza and the cauldron.  Apparently this was the highlight because it is the only picture that I have besides the pictures of all of the buildings with the images of the Olympic athletes on them.
Oh well.  It was fun.  I was really glad that circumstances were such that we were able to be in Utah for this once in a lifetime (?) event.