Day 19- Colorado: Olympic and Paralympic Museum

Day 19: Colorado- Olympic and Paralympic Museum

This is your last "Hello" from the Happy's! We started our day at 5:30 this morning, waking up indoors at the Custer YMCA. Our gourmet breakfast this morning, served by the Sleepy's, was bagels with cream cheese, there were even two kinds of options; strawberry or plain!  The bus naps were short lived today as everyone was woken up at a rest stop by Dallas playing "Shake Your Silly's Out", which some of us found to be quite comical, while others were a little confused still thinking it was a dream!

We made our second stop of the day at Flying J's gas station where many of us bought Cinnabon and Pizza. Nobody tells you how AMAZING Cinnabon is until you haven't had it in a long time! Even though we were stuffed from our purchased snacks, we still ate turkey/ham and cheese sandwiches. Who could say no to sandwiches, am I right? The left and right sides of the bus competed in a "friendly" game of Family Feud. The right side came out victorious. A short music intermission is just what we needed for our next activity. KARAOKE!!! Songs such as "Wagon Wheel", "Hey There, Delilah", and....of course...."Baby" were hits. 




Finally, we made it to our destination, the United States Air Force Academy. Everyone shopped around for a while before looking at the artifacts and displays within the visitor center. We took a short walk to see a beautiful vista point before quickly loading the bus to make it to our next place of the day. 













I-SPY Will!











We are all airplanes!


Once arrived at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, everyone unloaded and headed inside. We were greeted by some of the museum employees with "Youth" lanyards that helped us enjoy different interactive displays. Some of us listened to videos on the history of different Olympic and Paralympic Sports, got to learn about some of our role models, and even got to make our own paintings on one of the displays. After everyone had gone through the exhibits, we all piled in the theater to watch a heartwarming and inspiring program, made by some Olympic and Paralympic competitors. The experience had many of us teary eyed or left with chill bumps. We then went outside to listen to Regan O'Neill tell us a little more about the Olympic and Paralympic Museum. Right after, we hopped on the bus to head to our "home" for the night. 
































































As we made it to the Colorado College campus to stay, we gathered around to hear the presentations for today. These presentations were given by: Lilly Cabe (Colorado College), Carson Champion (The Air Force Academy), Charlie Price (Colorado), Meredith Crisp (Custer, SD), and Barrett Huffstetler (Mt. Rushmore), we had to catch up on research from yesterday! The counselors then took us all by surprise when she told us we were getting PIZZA for dinner!!!! Honestly the cooks have been shaking in their cowboy hats all day long because they thought they forgot dinner! As the sky started to get a little cloudy (which we're used to by now), we quickly unpacked the vans and bus, gathered our belongings, and settled in the gym for the night. Little did we know, the innocent rain storm turned into a HAIL storm. We have quite literally seen all the weather on this trip! 













We headed downstairs to partake in the delicious Domino's pizza, served by the amazing Sleepy's. Some of us even went to the extreme of complimenting Dallas for extra...tehe. After dinner, we got some more practice for our dance competition. Most of us had A LOT of work to do. Finally, competition time came around. We all performed our signature dances to Bruno Mars' "24K magic". The counselors even surprised us with their own performance, starring Gangsta Ian. Though all dances were great (some better than others *cough, cough* the Happy's), the winner of the night was the Bashful's, starring Loggan (aka Loggangsta).
































































Everyone's reaction to the counselors dance! 
We had an awesome dance party to celebrate and soon after, showered and settled down for the night. Happy's out, we will see you so so so soon!