Beijing Withdrawals

It's the first night after the end of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and our family is having withdrawals! For the past 16 days, we have all been glued to the TV watching all that we can of the USA athletes "going for the gold"! And what a show they put on! We screamed and cheered for Michael Phelps in each of the 8 races he swam in and won an unprecedented 8 gold medals (never done before!)!! We cheered on Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh as they played approximately 4000 matches to win the gold in Beach Volleyball. We cheered, but had no idea what was going on, in the fencing final where 2 American women won gold and silver. The diving was cool, the gymnastics kept this Mommy up to midnight numerous nights, and the track and field made us all wish we could "fly" like them. We didn't get to see any of the women's softball and Anna was bummed by that. Avery got pumped up about studying the Olympics at school and was the only student that did the "extra" work of looking up some USA athletes on the Internet and printing out their pics (Phelps, May and Walsh, & Shaun Johnson, of course!)! Tanner enjoyed the excitement of the 26.2 mile marathon and the 2 hours it took to run it! (not really!)

My favorites? Definitely Michael Phelps! 8 gold medals couldn't go to a more deserving athlete! He seems so down to earth and humble, and he loves his mama! Misty May and Kerri Walsh ended up at the top of the list - after watching them win 498 times to get to the gold medal match, how could they not? Watching Americans Shaun Johnson (gold medal on beam) and Nastia Liukin (gold medal in all-around and others) in women's gymnastics was a nail biter and so much fun to watch. Heck -it was ALL fun to watch! We are bummed they only happen every 2 years (4 until the next SUMMER Olympics!). Maybe one day Terry and I can take the kids to experience the Olympics. I went to some events when they were in Atlanta and it was the greatest! Definitely worth it! And makes you even more proud to be an American!

The USA finished this Olympics by winning the most total medals! How awesome is that! But our withdrawals tonight were so bad, that we turned the TV off altogether! We just had to readjust!