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.

Warning: Real Wound-- Not A Halloween One.

Kean is definitely feeling better and looking better.

He even got to go to church today-- his first time

in years at our congregation.

Let's just say, it was an exhausting experience.

Kean and I left halfway through and he immediately

fell asleep in the car.

(Wish I could have)!

 Byron stayed home and rotated from the bed to the couch.

He's already bored out of his mind.

Warning-- if you have a squeamish stomach-- 

but his swelling is holding steady and the "slice"

has stopped bleeding (finally).  He's grouchy

but doing fine.

 I have totally lucked out.

Holland learned just this week how to change

bandages at school (remember she goes

to that special medical high school)!

She has done most of the dirty work.

 In case you haven't overloaded on Halloween pictures,

I took the kids (plus one neighbor) out.

We visited a few of our favorite friends--

the Bodily's...

 the Kwids... (Gina was H and G's 2nd grade teacher),

 the Borup's (our dear, dear friends)...

 the Brinton's (oops, no picture) and Nancy Suiter

who lived next door to us until her home burned down a few

years back.  We have to keep tradition alive and visit

her each Halloween.

 Kean's not a huge candy man-- but had fun getting out

and high fiving every one.

He looked dang cute in his biker outfit-- complete

with tattooed arms and chest hair.

Guess he'll be giving most of his treats

to his dad (who is a candy man)!

Cancer Perk

Thanks to Kean having cancer doesn't sound quite right.

So I'll say... because Kean has cancer, we've had some

opportunities as a family we'd never have had otherwise.

Case in point, we were invited (with several other cancer families)

for a special afternoon with the Boise State football team.

Byron had to work, so my mom went in his place to help me

wrangle the kids.

 And wow, were we ever spoiled.

We started out with the Assistant Athletic Director in the "film room".

He told us all about the program (did you know BSU has

 won more games than any other team in the country since 2002?

And did you know BSU players are second in the country for academic gpa?).

We even got to watch two short videos about some neat things they do 

as a team.  Kean loved the videos and was clapping wildly at the end of

each one.

 We were then taken on a tour of the entire facility--

and trust me, it is quite impressive.

We started with the cavernous weight training and work out rooms.

 The trainers were there to answer questions and show the kids around.

 We saw where they get massages, physical therapy,

and even the shower room.

Kean was wandering around telling everyone "hi" that he met.

He was a maniac.

But a cute maniac.

 The locker room totally surprised me.

It was really nice and neat.

And get this--- NOT smelly.

They have some fancy ventilation system that sucks air

in and around each locker-- the place smelled great!

Not even a tinge of sweat.

We were so excited to find a locker of a player

named Kevin Keane.

 And guess who we ran into during their scrimmage?

Mr. Keane himself.

He's the "long snapper" and about the nicest guy you'd 

ever want to meet.

 In fact, after the scrimmage, he came over to find his

new little buddy, Kean-- just to give him a fist bump.

 The girls got a trillion autographs.

I was floored at how kind and friendly the boys were.

Kean, my mom and I were just standing off to the side

and we had so many players and coaches come over,

introduce themselves and talk to us.

Some even asked to have their picture taken with Kean

on their phones.

This guy is named Brennyn Dunn.  I had to look him up-- he's a Tight End.
He made out night by coming up to us and remembering our crazy family!
 We had met him last February at the Boise State Dance

Marathon to raise money for St. Luke's.  

The team came out to support the event and Brennan

had swing danced with Reese quite a bit (tossing her up and around).

 He was so cute again with Reese and made her promise

to save him a dance at the next Dance Marathon!

All of these guys were just darling with the kids.

 Finally, we met the head coach, Bryan Harsin and no surprise

here-- he was as gentle and kind as his players.

He totally got into giving Kean fist bumps and high fives.

I think this team earned some life long fans this evening.

We had a great night.