So far behind!

Boise had the great pleasure of hosting the Special Olympics World Winter Games. My Dad got to be one of the bus drivers for the athletes. Of course he requested to have the Swiss athletes on his bus. I had plans to volunteer to help with the Games, but didn't get around to filling out the application in time. Fortunately I got to tag along with my Dad a couple of times and it was a lot of fun getting to spend some time with the athletes and to see them compete. I went up with my Dad on Sunday when they were just doing practice runs, and then again on Friday for their final competitions.

The Swiss, Lichtenstein, Monaco, and Korea athletes on the bus getting ready to head up to Bogus.

Some of the athletes getting ready to do their practice runs.

Me and my Dad in the lodge



One of the athletes finishing up their run.

Monday night, the Swiss Delegation had invited my Dad to have dinner with them at Cazba, a Greek restaurant downtown. He asked if he could bring his daughters along, so Heather and I got to join in the fun too.


Me, Mario, and Heather

When we first met Mario that night, he told his coach that he wanted to sit by me or by Heather. My Dad told him he could sit in the middle and have one of us on either side. He had the biggest grin on his face after hearing that.

My Dad and Mario

Aldo and Jean-Francois

Aldo is the head of the Swiss Delegation and Jean-Francois is the Swiss Consul General in San Francisco.

Me and my Dad with the Monaco team up at Bogus. It was so cold! As you can see from the picture, the only part of my face that is showing is a couple of inches that weren't covered by my beanie or hoodie.

Everyone loved the Swiss cow bell that my dad brought. It's a bell that my Uncle won from wrestling a long time ago and he gave it to my dad. All week people kept asking my dad if they could take a picture of the bell.

Mario from Team Switzerland finishing his race.

Daniella from Team Switzerland
I loved the excitement on their faces when they walked out to receive their medals.

She won the gold in her division.

Katrine from Team Switzerland and Sonja from Team Lichtenstein.

There was just the two of them in their division, so it was a 50-50 chance that one of them would get gold.

Kai from Team Lichtenstein getting the gold.

Aldo from Team Switzerland getting the bronze. He's another one of the athletes that was sweet on Heather and I.

Giving the thumbs up.

You just can't help feeling so happy for them when they show this kind of emotion.

Mario waiting to get his bronze.

He told my Dad on the bus ride up the mountain that if he won gold he was going to give it to me.

Shaking the deputy's hand after getting his medal.

My Dad outside the bus with Team Lichtenstein and a couple of army guys that were walking by and the coach told them to get in the picture.

Friday night I met my Dad over at the Idaho Center for the Closing Ceremony. He borrowed one of the other bus drivers credentials that was going to stay for the Closing, which made it easy to get in. We also had tickets for seats, but they were way up in the nose bleeds, so we went down on the floor, and surprisingly there wasn't anyone at the bottom making sure people were getting down on the floor with the athletes. We went over to where Team Switzerland was sitting and Aldo (head of delegation) told us that we could sit with them and if anyone gave us any problems, to send them his way. It was so much fun to be right there with the athletes and see their excitement for the accomplishments they made. It was like a huge party to them and they got up and danced every time a song was played.

The flame at the Idaho Center

The Swiss snowflake.

The Swiss Team

Yanick and Laurianne celebrating!

Me and Mario dancing

My Dad and I broke out a little early and went and traded some pins with some of the other delegations. We ended up with some really cool pins from all over the world. I even got a ceramic shoe key chain from Holland that was hand painted! We got out of there at a perfect time too because we missed all the traffic and I still got home at a reasonable hour. So much fun!

Viva Las Vegas!

Annie and I took a little minication to escape the inversion that Boise always suffers during the month of January, and to get a much needed break from work. We wanted to go somewhere close that wouldn't cost too much, but that would also be a little warmer than Boise. So we decided on Vegas. We got a pretty good deal on a flight through Southwest and a great deal on the hotel through Hotwire.com. We rented a car while we were down there too, which came in handy for getting our In-N-Out fixes.

Looking out the plane window over a sea of clouds with the mountains just poking through. It was so nice to see the sun again.

Welcome to the Wynn Las Vegas! Nice thing about staying here, Valet parking is free. (well not really because of the price of the room, but I still enjoyed it.)

The hotel lobby. I'm guessing the theme right now is Chinese New Year, because a lot of the hotels had Chinese decorations up.

Entrance to our hotel room.

The bathtub and shower.

The rest of the bathroom, and yes that is a tv in the wall to the left of the mirror. Annie and I were getting ready to go eat.

Our room, it was so worth the price!

The view from our window. The hotel in the center of the picture is Treasure Island.

There is a Ferrari/Maserati dealership in the Wynn hotel. We didn't go and check it out because it costs money to look at the cars. Of course. :( I took this picture mostly for my dad. :)

One of the ships at Treasure Island

This was right next to the ship

This is where they perform the show, Sirens of T.I.

Gondola rides in the Venetian

The Bellagio Botanical Gardens.

Cute little panda bear made out of leaves.

Bridge and rock formation


Chinese Water Buffalo to symbolize the Year of the Ox 2009.


Waiting for PF Changs

The Paris Hotel

The Eiffel Tower Restaurant

Statue at the Hoover Dam

Two of the Towers showing Nevada time and the Colorado River.

They were working on building a bridge across the Colorado River while we were there. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be working on that bridge, hundreds of feet up in the air. No, Thank you!

More of the Hoover Dam

This is the view from our room at night.

We were killing some time before going to dinner so we went over to the Fashion Show Mall to wander around. While we were there, they were putting on a fashion show. It's hard to see from the picture, but the room with the blue lights, where the models change and walk out, is coming up from the floor. The runway came up from the floor as well.

Inside the Forum Shops at Ceasar's Palace

Me and Annie with a statue in Ceasar's Palace

Me and Annie after eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill. Super delicious steak and killer mashed potatoes, but I've had better dessert.

Our hotel at night

The baby dolphin at Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage.

They were taking the Dolphin through the motions of getting it's blood drawn so that when the time came for it's blood to be drawn, it would already be used to the procedure.

The White Lion

Five baby white tiger cubs, they are 9 months old.

The Leopards taking a snooze.

One of the white tigers.

My favorite, the baby leopard cub, he is only two months old. They only bring him out for an hour a day and we just happened to be there at the right time. The pictures are so blurry because he kept jumping around. I should have taken a video instead. Oh well.

How I would love to be the one in there getting to play with that cute baby leopard.