Bryce's Olympic Moment!

Bryce with 2008 Olympian Joey Hagerty! Joey was so gracious to us!


This is Joey's Bronze medal, flanked by an award from the Rio Rancho Sports Commission & the first EVER key to the city.


Bryce also got to meet some Rio Rancho firefighters. Believe it or not, the one on the right is a former student of mine! Ugghh, I'm getting old!

This morning we got a rare treat...we attended a "Welcome Home" ceremony at Rio Rancho City Hall for Joey Hagerty, who was a member of the 2008 USA Men's Gymnastics team that just won Bronze in Beijing. Joey grew up here in Rio Rancho, although he now trains in Colorado. It was pretty cool to see Rio Rancho, NM, listed as his hometown during the coverage of the Olympics over the past couple of weeks!

Our house has been pretty Olympics-obsessed, to the point that Bryce sat through an entire USA Women's Water Polo match one afternoon. I was in our office working on the computer, and he appeared every few minutes to give me critical score updates. It was pretty cute. When we saw that there was going to be a ceremony for Joey today, we knew we had to take advantage of the unique opportunity. We were able to see Joey receive the first "Key to the City" that Rio Rancho has ever awarded, and he was gracious enough to stay and sign autographs & take pictures with everyone who came to see him. Bryce & I waited in line for a few minutes to get a picture & have some shirts signed for the boys. Stu got the unenviable job of entertaining Drew, who didn't think that waiting in line was so great. He did like the complimentary cake, however. We also ran into one of my former students, Brad, who is now a Rio Rancho firefighter. (Yes, I'm that old.) He and a friend posed with Bryce for another cool picture.

Stu snuck in at the back end of the line to get a peek at a real Olympic medal. It was pretty impressive in person. All in all, a great way to spend a Monday morning! Joey Hagerty, you rock!!!