2009 Arizona Champion: Trip to the White House

After about a half hour wait outside the White House (the President was in a meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia) we all went through security and were escorted into the White House. We were free to walk from room to room in one section of the house and then were escorted onto the South Lawn where the Champions and families were arranged for pictures. It took a good 15 minutes to get everyone settled before the President came walking up the sidewalk. Before sitting down with the Champions he made sure to shake each and every one of their hands. He sat right up front and told everybody to say "cheese" for 3 pictures. Brad, Tyler, and I were standing up on the balcony of the White House right above where Brandon was sitting. We got lots of pictures of the tops of everyone's head. The President then asked if any of the Champions had a question for him. Brandon was dissappointed because he was not selected. He really wanted to ask the question that his sixth grade class sent to us "What will you do to ensure quality education for ALL Americans?".

One of the questions was "can we play on the playground equipment that was put up for Sasha and Malia?" The President said "Yes, as long it is ok with your parents it is fine with me?" All the children loved this answer and as soon as President Obama was wisked away by his security guards and the children were given the go ahead they ran to the small (well it was small for 50+ kids) play area. The kids were having a great time and President Obama came out one more time to see how they were all enjoying it, spoke with a couple of children and then went back inside the White House. We were told later on that Sasha and Malia had only played on the playset once before they had to leave for Spring Break, that is where they currently are. So all of the children today really got to break it all in.

After the White House we went to a wonderful sandwich shop called Potbelly for a late lunch. We enjoyed this restaurant when we were in DC last year and were glad to find it just around the corner from our hotel. After an hour and a half of rest we were back with the group on our way to the ESPN Zone, a huge sports bar with one full floor of nothing but games. Tonight was truely amazing. It was 4 hours of non-stop fun. First we had a friendly song competition between buses. While we have been here in DC we have been split up into 5 buses to get us around from place to place, well we were all challenged to come up with a song about the color of our bus (ours was yellow), the red bus had an advantage since they had Mark Wills aboard but all of the songs were great. We were told they would be posted on YouTube so if you find them you need to vote for Yellow. Then Miss America spoke and she introduced a suprise guest....Elmo! She and Elmo sung some songs and also introduced the Champion, Kaitlin, from New Jersey who has been on 18 episodes of Sesame Street. I spoke with Kaitlin's mom later and they know my cousin Leslie Carrara who is Abby Cadabby on Sesame Street....it truely is a small world. Mark Wills and one of his band members then sung three of his songs, my favorite is "Don't laugh at me". ESPN Zone had two buffets set up, one special for the kids and another for the adults. They even had a huge dessert bar with every dessert imaginable. Of course the kids were so excited to get to the lower level (reserved just for them) that they didn't eat a whole bunch. We played until 10:15, said goodbye to all of the wonderful families we met during this great week, headed back to the hotel to pack and get a few hours of sleep before heading out bright and early tomorrow morning.

Brandon is wearing the red t-shirt

Sasha and Malia's playset and picnic table which says "Malia & Sasha's Family Time Presidential picnic table" and has an engraved plate with each of the presidents that served before him.