Friday night we had one of our best evenings of the year.
Boise State's Dance Marathon is something we look forward to all year long.
Hundreds and hundreds of students dance all night to raise money
for St. Luke's Children's Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network.
Kean's been one of their "Champion" children since they
started this event at BSU five years ago. Of course, this
was only his second year he was well enough to attend--
and just look at him up on stage with some of the other honored
kids and some of the dancers.
Part of what makes this so fun, is we've grown to love
many of these students. Here the kids are reunited with
Kendra from last year. We adore this girl!
In the hopes of getting the students motivated to keep dancing,
they had our family (and others) get up on stage and tell
our story.
Kean was so great on stage-- totally comfortable
and even babbled something into the mic.
They lined up the portraits and stories of all of the honored kids.
I had to stop myself from stealing Kean's and taking it home--
it was so cute!
They did let us take home the posters where the kids
wrote the kindest notes to each of the children.
It is such a fun event-- lots of food, treats, visitors---
Kean was quite intrigued by the giant cow.
I'm not sure what a cow has to do with the Boise State Broncos,
but Kean loved playing with the poor guy.
Of course, there was a lot of dancing.
One of my favorite moments? Reese dancing with Kean.
She weighs a whopping five pounds more than he does.
I loved this coed- who came over, plopped down on the floor
and hung out with Kean for about twenty minutes.
In fact, that's one of the things we love so much-- we must have
been hugged by at least a hundred students. They are so great
and friendly with all of us.\
This is a picture of our dear friend, Drea-- the student who heads
up the entire Dance Marathon.
Everyone paid a buck to put a piece of duct tape on her
to strap her to the wall.
My girls were right in there!
Another fun fundraiser, was Jail. My mom sent Reese
to jail for ten minutes. We like to start our juvenile delinquency
off young.
We couldn't leave Holland and Greer out of the fun.
We hired Malek (the guy on the left) to round them up and haul
them off to the pokey.
We were there for about five hours (not in jail, at the event)-- and the dance floor
just kept growing.
The student union/rec center regulations don't allow anyone
under 18 to stay past ten. So at about 9:30, all the hero
families went back on stage.
Kean had his little harem of coeds surrounding him.
He wanted nothing to do with his family-- he was
too busy dancing in the arms of one girl after another!
And he didn't even seem phased by the fact there was nearly
a thousand kids dancing and watching him.
Our favorite part - hands down- is the end of OUR night--
when all the students form a monster of a long tunnel
and we all run the gauntlet-- telling them thank you and
giving them high fives.
It is an incredible experience...
where we feel nothing but love.
Kean ate it up-- especially since he was being carried
the entire time (her back must be aching today)
by a cute, blonde co-ed.
We went home to bed (Kean was asleep before we left the parking garage)
while the students danced all night.
They unveiled the funds raised this morning.
Drum roll please....
$150,712.62 RAISED FOR THE KIDS!
Can you believe that?
The future of our country is in good hands.
Seriously.
