His Shriners

What a wonderful wonderful evening our entire family had last night.  Aaron didn't understand where we were going when we left the house but when we pulled into the Shriner's parking lot and he saw HIS Shriner's vans parked in front of the building.... well... that was all he needed to know that these were HIS people and that the banquet had been thrown in HIS honor.  When he saw they were serving hot dogs, rolls, salad, green beans, ice cream and brownies - well that just cinched it for him - this was HIS party.  We are talking Aaron's Happy Foods!!  (The adults had steak much to Ben and Elijah's delight.) 

Our little guy walked among the tables in that banquet hall like he owned the place.  The vast majority of the Shriners there either knew him or knew about him so he was greeted and loved on wherever he wandered.  He was absolutely in his glory.   There were some clowns circulating through the room which made it even more fun for our little wanderer. I think Wiskers was Aaron's favorite because he had these cool tricks that had Aaron completely entranced!! 

Wiskers was the first Shriner I met.  He was at a local screening clinic and

without him we would not have been sitting at those tables.

I couldn't get Aaron to look at my camera because he was looking at another photographer in both of these pictures!!

Yes - He was a celebrity.

It was a very special night.

Rob and I were blessed to have been given the chance to stand up and say thank you to all the Shriners and their wives for the life-giving work that they do.  We wrote out our speech so that we could give it together.  We shared it in a tag team style - taking turns telling Aaron's story.  We had all of our words written out before us but I'm not very good at sticking with the script.  I tend to ad lib.... a lot.  Rob kept the pages turning though and we both said everything that we wanted to say and more! 

As I said - it was a very special night.  We were honored to have been invited and we were grateful for the opportunity to share Aaron's story with the Shriners and the different media groups represented in that room.

I've said it before and I will say it again - SHRINERS ROCK!!