THE SUN IS SHINNING
Ok, the sun was not shinning, it was raining like my other 14er attempts of the summer. Our trip down south to hike Kit Carson ended up just being a nice road trip. I cannot believe I am 0-4 on 14er hikes this year.
Basically, it was it just another low point in a week that had some dissapointing events. The rockies fall apart and blew any real chance of the playoffs, my favorite show was cancelled, Denver’s chance to dominate all major lacrosse leagues came up short with the Denver Outlaws lost, and Pluto was demoted from a planet to a dwarf planet.
Oh well, this time there are few nice photos we got from out trip down to Crestone, Colorado for our attempt of Kit Carson. Click here to enjoy some of the beauty of God’s creation.
LikeTHIS IS THE STORY OF RANDY RACCOON
There is a story on the rockies website about a raccoon who moved into the bullpen at Coors Field. Which begs the simple question, was Mesa released or did clear waivers? Too bad he is not more of pinch hitter kind of player.
SITTIN IN THE BACK OF MY NEXT CLASS NAPPIN
Do you feel like helping a child to get a great education? Well, now your shopping for groceries, gasoline, clothes, home repairs, restaurants, fast food, gifts, etc. can help.
Here is the deal, Lynzee’s school has a gift card program where we get a percentage of the purchase of any of the gift cards. It does not cause you any extra than what you would spend, but it helps us out.
Click here for more information.
Free feel to spread of the word to anyone. There links on the side bar called Gift Cards Orders and Gift Cards Order Form where anyone can do to read about the program or get the order form.
AND TONIGHT, IT’S REALLY COMING DOWN
Just so those of you who want to know, I am 0 for 3 this summer. It is not at all what I was hoping for. I attempted another 14er on Monday and come up empty just like the other two attempts this summer. The heavy rain, lighting, dark clouds, and fog kept us off the mountains.
Maybe, our next attempt this summer will be better. I want to summit on a peak a few times this year.
HE TOLD A GOOD STORY AND ALL US KIDS LISTENED
Editor Note:
I have a special treat for this entry. My friend, Mike, had a great opportunity that was really exciting. So I ask him to write about it for the blog. Along with this story there is a page of must see pictures to check out here.
Also, Mike works for a great foundation called, The Patu Foundation. Please visit the website and check out ways to volunteer or donate.
It’s not every day that you have a chance to meet someone like Garth Brooks. So when I found out I would not only have the chance to meet him as well as other professional athletes and celebrities and that it would also be the same week as Sarah and my first year anniversary, I knew it would be something special. Here’s how this once in a lifetime experience came our way:
I have been working as the events coordinator for The Patu Foundation since I graduated from UNC in May. The founder of the foundation is Saul Patu, who plays football for the Colorado Crush. Saul recently joined Garth Brooks’ foundation Teammates for Kids, which is a really unique and extremely effective foundation. Players from the MLB, NHL and NFL join Teammates for Kids and donate money based on their performance in their respective sports. Each year his foundation hosts a summer appreciation party in Las Vegas at The Mirage for the professional athletes, foundation teammates and sponsors. Saul couldn’t make it, so he arranged for me to go in his place to represent the foundation. It was a tough decision and a big sacrifice, but I decided to go. Somebody has to do the dirty work right? I got the tickets and was able to keep it a secret from Sarah. It had always been a dream of hers to see Garth live in concert, so I knew she would lose it when I told her we might be able to meet him and be part of a select crowd of pro athletes and celebrities to enjoy a private concert. When I finally told her what we would be doing once we got to the hotel room, she was bouncing off the walls.
The first event was the evening reception in the Grand Ballroom. There were two walls full of some amazing sports memorabilia up for a silent auction, multiple food tables and bars, pool tables, air hockey, even big screen TV’s where you could play video games on couches. We looked at all of the silent auction items and hung around for a couple of hours and right when we were about to leave ESPN’s Barry Melrose and Steve Levy, who would be the emcees for the two days, came out to welcome everyone and introduce Garth. Garth welcomed everyone to the event, and made fun of Barry Melrose’s fashion sense and hair just as everyone else does. He then came down from the stage with Trisha Yearwood so people could meet them. He didn’t have to tell Sarah twice, as she rushed to the front of the line with camera in hand. What was nice about this event was that Garth knew most of the people there and didn’t have to worry about getting mobbed or anything. So whenever people went up to get their picture with him he would ask where they were from and who they were with. He was very humble and personable and is just a great guy who has a passion for helping kids. So when Sarah and I got up there I was able to tell him about our foundation and what we were all about. He said he wanted to help us out and told us who we could talk to about getting help. Then before our picture I gave him my business card and I can now say that the first business card I ever handed out was to Garth Brooks! Sarah held in her giddiness until we got to the elevator, then she jumped around the elevator singing, “I just met Garth Brooks!†over and over again. Apparently I was scoring a record number of points with this trip.
The next morning we went to the breakfast/meeting and to our surprise we were sent to a private breakfast room away from the larger breakfast room where everyone else was. We went in and there were about ten people there, including Garth and the co-founder of the Teammates for Kids Foundation. It consisted mostly of people who worked for professional sports teams who were always trying to get more players to join the foundation. I guess since we went in Saul’s place, we were included in this meeting where Garth and the other staff members had us all introduce ourselves and asked us for input and questions that would help the foundation. Garth even brought us up when he was talking about people that were there who had their own foundations and how they could help us. After this, a military man and his wife came into the room. He was about to give a special presentation at the business meeting, but he came in to meet us first. He is an admiral who is the commander of U.S. Northern Command, which is directly responsible for keeping us safe from any threats and aggression directed toward U.S. territory. So basically he is the top guy in the military in charge of keeping us from getting hit by countries like North Korea. When Bush was talking about how confident he is in our anti-missile defense program recently, he was pretty much talking about this guy. At the business meeting he gave us a slide show of how the anti-missile program worked and all of the different ways U.S. Northern Command keeps us safe. It was incredible and after watching his moving presentation, we definitely felt a lot safer seeing how passionate he was about keeping this country safe. After this we had some free time, so we walked the strip and were also able to see an art gallery of Ansel Adam’s work at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art. We didn’t even know it would be there, and Ansel Adam’s is my favorite artist.
That night was the big night, with the celebration dinner. When we sat down at our table, there was a gift-wrapped Garth Brooks box set for each couple. We then had a fancy dinner before they brought out the Teammates for Kids All-Stars, which were kids who have benefited from the foundation’s donations to children’s charities. There were four kids on stage. One who has had leukemia since he was five, an inner city youth who went from not knowing how to read to winning four spelling bees, a boy from Hong Kong who was born without eyes and was adopted by a Christian couple from Denver and a boy born with spina bifida who plays sled hockey. Then the emcees talked with them and showed a video that told each one’s story. Then they had the big live auction with some incredible items, including a moonwalkers piece that had the signatures of everyone who walked on the moon as well as a painting by one of the astronauts and their mission patches. That one went for $75,000. They raised over $2 million that night. Wayne Brady from “Whose Line Is It Anyway†also came out during the auction to auction off tickets to his stand-up show and entertained the crowd for awhile. Then all of the professional athletes gathered together for a Teammates picture with Garth and Trisha. But what was great was after the cameraman took the picture the athletes stayed up there for awhile so the rest of us could take pictures. After they came down I was able to get a picture with Kurt Warner (and yes his wife was there, but now she has long blonde hair. It was weird.) Among the athletes and celebrities we saw were Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs, Anthony Munoz (Hall of Famer who played for the Bengals), Larry Walker (who was the first pro player to become a teammate and played for our Rockies), Shjon Podein (who was the first hockey player to join Teammates and used to play for the Avalanche), Rulon Gardner (Olympic wrestler who remembered me from when I interviewed him for the newspaper at UNC), Kevin Sorbo (the guy who played Hercules on the WB show) and a bunch of hockey players and football players I didn’t recognize. And last but not least Garth got on stage and performed solo for about an hour and also did a few duets with Trisha Yearwood. It was a unique show because he played a lot of his classics but also played songs from artists who influenced him from when he was a kid to when he started getting big. Sarah was sure to record all of the songs on her camera and sing along as well.
It was an amazing couple of days. It felt like we were on a different planet. Now everyone asks how I’m going to be able to top this trip when next year’s anniversary comes around. Sarah says there would be one way…to give her a baby. I told her I think it may be easier for me to get her to meet Garth Brooks.
Teammates for Kids is a great foundation and its all about helping kids. Our foundation, The Patu Foundation, is also all about helping kids and giving them the tools to succeed in life. If you would like to find out more information about either of these foundations, you can follow the links below. We are in our first year as a foundation and could use your support through volunteering, donating, or just helping to get our name out there.
