The Dancing King and His Queens

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.

The Results Are In...

Today was our big follow up testing at the cancer clinic.

I'm such a chicken.  I really didn't want to go by myself

in case the results were discouraging.

So at the last minute, my friend Colleen Riggs went with me.

She has always been especially cute with Kean.

 In fact, I think he has a little bit of a crush on her.

Anyway, here's the news-- my mama's intuition was right on!

Kean's white blood cell counts were back within normal range.

Of course, I've shaved off a few years of my life worrying

and the doctor isn't sure why- but we will gladly take it.

(And run.  No more testing!).

Every time Kean gets his blood drawn at clinic, he gets

a duck.  We got a good laugh over this one today.

Colleen christened him "Fabio".

Fabio Duck is just one of 80 some ducks in Kean's collection.

 Sunday night we had a grand time with this gang.

We met Brennyn (plaid shirt) four years ago

at the BSU Dance Marathon.

The football team usually shows up to build morale and give the students

dancing all night for St. Luke's Children's Hospital a shot in the arm to keep going.

Brennyn and Reese tore up the dance floor-- he mostly flipping her around.

It was so cute.

So he automatically became her favorite dance partner for the next few years.

Rob (in the black shirt) became our other dance buddy a few years ago.

And Kendra is the one Kean latched onto the other night

and didn't want to leave.

They all came over for dinner, dessert and a little cut-throat competition-

playing our new favorite game:  Cover Your Assets.

Rob smoked everyone!

Ah, life is good to us.

Dancing With the Stars

Friday night we went to one of our all time favorite events.

One we have been blessed to be a part of due to Kean's cancer.

(Another one of those few but incredible perks).

Get this, they had 950 students sign up to dance from Friday

afternoon straight through to Saturday morning-- all to raise

money for St. Luke's Children's Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network.

(This is Friday afternoon when everyone is first arriving).

All the dancers are assigned to dance for a certain honored child--

that's Kean's picture first on the left.

When we first arrived, Kean was given his Pink team "Champion" t-shirt.

 I wasn't sure how he would handle himself- especially with

all the loud base-driven music thumping all night.

But let me tell you, the kid was in his element.

Of course, who wouldn't be when constantly given attention.

He loved the bounce houses...

and was totally in love with the music.  Well, to be honest,

was likely in love with the fact that he danced much of the night

away with several pretty co-eds.

He particularly fell hard for this lovely girl, Kendra.

In fact, she ended up joining our family on stage a couple of times

because he didn't want to let go.

So, welcome Kendra to the family!

Here's a picture of Kean up on stage at the beginning of the evening--

as they introduced all of the "champion" kids.

It was so cute.  They introduced them like they would a world famous boxer.

They said things like:  "weighing in at 42 pounds... "

  

 I don't think I saw much of Reese the entire night.

She was off jumping, dancing and eating the entire campus

out of cotton candy and all the other yummies they had around.

 All too soon (according to my girls) it was time to leave

and say goodbye.

 The best part though, came right before we all headed home

leaving the kids to keep dancing.

They lined up-- at least 700 of them and formed the longest

human tunnel I've ever seen.

All the champions and their families ran through the tunnel

getting high fives and lots of love and encouragement.

Kendra carried Kean the entire way with me behind.

It went on and on-- first I can't believe Kendra's arms didn't fall off

and second, it was so very touching.

You go to something like this and your faith in the future

of our country is completely restored.

(Clearly, I need to stop watching election coverage).

These students are not only sharp, driven, organized and

real go-getters.  But wow, do they have heart!

Their goal for the evening was to raise 80 grand.

They shattered that goal (I'm not surprised at all) and raised

a whopping 114 thousand dollars-- all to help kids like Kean.

A Little Romance and a Little Football

We sure like to jam pack it in around here.

We started our Saturday morning off  throwing a bridal shower for

Nicole.  She married my dear friend Elly Moomey's son Mark a few

weeks ago in Utah.  

We had Mark surprise Nicole and show up for the gift opening

part of the shower.  They are so dang cute together!

 Once we finished with the shower, we headed down to Boise State.

Kean is one of the "Honored Children" that students will be dancing for

at the upcoming BSU Dance Marathon to raise money for St. Luke's 

Children's Hospital.

We were a few minutes late so ended up getting a private tour

of the football facilities.

This is the team room where the players all watch and study

game footage and meet with the coaches.

 Kean certainly made himself at home

in the locker rooms.  He found one of the few lockers

that wasn't assigned-- just like he was waiting

for them to put his name on the locker.

Oh, and by the way, the locker room smelled

wonderful-- clean and fresh.

How do they do that?!?!?

 The Boise State football complex is quite impressive-

for a school this size, it is one of the best.  Definitely, the

nicest in the Mountain West Conference.

The girls got to play in the game room...

 Got to try their muscles pushing the training equipment.

 And took turns running on the famous blue turf.

 Don't ask my why my children insist on being monkeys.

 We all had to laugh-- as they were quite proud of themselves

for being able to lift the 45 pound bar that the weights go on.

 They particularly loved looking and picking out their favorite

uniforms (and pretending to be players -or models)!

 Oh, and we did finally catch up with the rest of the group.

We've gotten to know these brave children and their families

through the hospital and through the Dance Marathon.

Incredibly strong children (and their mama's too).

Oh, and lest we forget, we finished the evening off

with the "Idaho" reception for Mark and Nicole.

Great day.  Exhausting but great.

Dancing Queens

Talk about feeling like Cinderella at the ball

(especially since I got to come home today and clean house).

Last night Greer, Reese and I went to the Boise State Dance Marathon.

The Moomey's watched Kean and Byron and Holland went to 

Montana for a funeral.

Over 700 students dance for 17 hours straight to raise 

money for St. Luke's Children's Hospital.

 Even though Kean's never been able to go, he's been one of 

their honored kids for the past three years.

 The event gets bigger and bigger every year.

This year Kean was one of twelve honored children.

 And not only does it get bigger, it gets better every year.

To give you an idea, the first year they raised just over 5 grand.

Last year, it was over 35 and this year-- drum roll please--

they raised over 66 thousand dollars!!!

The afternoon started with this adorable band of siblings:

The Runaway Hamsters singing four of their original songs.

(One of them they wrote for a schoolmate battling cancer).

 Our family was asked to kick things off with a speech

about what Dance Marathon has meant to us--

which is tons.

We love everything about this night and wish we

could take you all with us to experience it first hand.

The students are so welcoming and fun to be around.

Greer and Reese get pulled in and always somehow

 end up dancing in the middle of things and making a million new fast friends.

We were also asked to give a second speech telling Kean's story.

This time we went up on stage with some of the BSU football team members.

They were one of our favorite parts about last year-- making us feel

a part of the party, so cute with the girls and dancing up a storm with Reese.

 I've decided if you ever want to feel short and tiny-- just 

stand next to these guys!

 They are the best-- not only did some of them

spend lots of time dancing with Reese, twirling her around,

teaching her how to line dance etc., 

they went up to the Honored Kids room-- the Champions Room,

to take pics, sign autographs (and get the kids autographs-- so sweet)

 and to play games with the children.

They are all pretty impressive young men.

Actually, all of the students we hobnobbed with are beyond sharp.

Nick and Sidney (below) are the two top organizers and trust me, you'll

be hearing about these two some day.

All I can say, is our future is in good hands.

 They made sure the girls had a grand time--

 We stayed as late as we dared--

let the kids dance, play games and party.

And I probably don't need to tell you-- but they passed out in the car

on the way home.

Next year we will be going for sure-- with Kean!