Its Olympic Time!

Its that time again! The Olympics are here! One to favor the Summer Olympics in general, I have been anxiously awaiting the start of this year's in particular so that I could share them with the boys. Its always just been a lot more thrilling to me than its Winter counterpart. Something about all the action with the running and the jumping and the throwing of heavy things that probably shouldn't be thrown. Whats that called again? We'll just go with "the throwing of heavy things that probably shouldn't be thrown" for now. Savvy? Oh and the oversized lawn darts. Yeah, we may skip that particular event...

Anyway, this is the first Summer Olympics that either of my kids have been alive for and its even better that D will be able to really get into it (hence the missing of the lawn darts). He is so into sports of all kind and I am really hoping he will enjoy watching the gymnastics set most of all. D is to tall to be a future gymnast but I really think he would enjoy it. He is all lean muscle anyway so this would be his kind of thing for reals. Kid can dead lift his body up onto the top of anything overhead using only his hands. You try it.

On Friday, we started the festivities off by watching the opening ceremonies. Guys.. can I just say how weird the Mary Poppins/ Voldemort puppet thing was? I mean. I get it. I do. Seriously though? Together? Just weird.

Otherwise, we had a grand time watching together. The boys were completely mesmerized and I spent a lot of the time giggling to myself at all the British ins. Except the Volde-Poppins thing. At which we all left the room for a few. Still, lets face it, we all squee'd a little when we saw Mr. Bean, right? And the iron rings? Can't beat that kind of theatrics.

The boys were also super excited to see the Queen herself. Then she jumped out of a helicopter with James Bond. So you have to admit, she is pretty cool.

They got a little restless when all the teams were streaming in and waving their hellos to the world around but I think it is always one of my favorites. The athletes always look so excited. Why shouldn't they? This is huge for them. Its something they have likely aspired to much of their whole lives. Win or lose, this is still something that most people will never accomplish. Not too shabby if you ask me. Let them have their moment.

Of course then there was the torch lighting. I was particularly touched by the fact they had the construction workers there to line the path of the torch coming into the stadium. Lets face it, same thing as the athletes, this is a once in a lifetime accomplishment. How many of you have "built Olympic stadium" on your resume? Thats what I thought.

The weird leafy, flowery torch thing is cool too. I have to admit though, I kind of miss the old stand by torches of days past. Atlanta had a really cool torch.

After that athlete parade, we all went to bed and both boys were mad excited to get up and watch some of the events the next morning.

Which we will.

In fact, we will probably spend the whole weekend going back and forth between the T.V., the dinner table, and outside to practice the moves we saw on the last event. We already know that D is a faster sprinter than K but also that K is a cheater and still wins half the time by using various ploys. Which is the exact same thing I used to do to my big sister. What can I say, he gets it honest.

Looks like this year's Olympics, my boys' first, is set to be an exciting one. Hopefully we will build enough memories that the next time they come around, we can all be as excited as we were this time.

Did you watch the opening ceremonies? Did the Volde-Poppins creep you out too? What is your favorite sport to watch?