Ryan, Jillian and I went to the White House today for the launch of Soldier Ride, White House to the Lighthouse Challenge. Awhile back we cycled from Arizona to California with this group- it's a blast. This is one of the other trips they do. Soldier Ride is a part of Wounded Warrior Project, (the non-profit Ryan works for) so we were able to attend and stand in the "family area" for President Obama's speech.
Here's what I got with my little point and shoot (which started blinking it's battery light AS SOON as I turned it on to take the first photo) Argh!
The view of the White House from where I was standing. Note the extreme angle to get the top of the building, and the fact that the bottom didn't fit into the photo. Yup, we were that close to the podium where President Obama spoke- pretty cool!
President Obama addressing the crowd. He said some really nice things about Soldier Ride and Wounded Warrior Project. It was great.
A few other distinguished individuals who came for the launch of the ride... on the far right is Tammy Duckworth- she was treated for her injuries at Walter Reed just before Ryan arrived and had the same prosthetist as Ryan, so we've heard lots of stories about her...
And finally, President Obama sounding the horn to mark the beginning of Soldier Ride, White House to Light House Challenge. For some reason, our blog is not letting you click on photos to view them larger, so I put this one on the very bottom of our page in LARGE size in case you are interested, scan all the way to the bottom...
Aside from the photos, here's the coolest part about the day:
Jillian fell asleep in her stroller when we arrived (for about an hour) so Ryan stood toward the back of our section on the lawn to watch her while I scooted up near some other Wounded Warrior Project staff members to have an clear view and take some photos. Just before the President spoke, Jillian woke up and pushed her way through the crowd to watch all the action with me. She kept saying, "BICYCLES!".
After Obama's speech, he was really great about taking the time to walk past the crowd and shake hands with people. When he got to Jillian and I, I shook his hand and he said, "How ya doing?" to me, and "Hi sweetie pie!" to Jillian. Jillian looked right at him and said (in a cranky, I just woke up voice) "No." He laughed and moved on. When I told Ryan about it, he said to Jillian- "Young lady! We don't talk back to Mommy, we don't talk back to Daddy, and WE DON'T talk back to the President of the United States!" :) Silly baby. ha ha...
Anyway- sorry for the long story, but it gets even better:
I was bummed Ryan didn't get a chance to shake the President's hand so we had someone watch the stroller, and I grabbed Jillian and wove through the crowd of people who were trying to see him. Ryan followed until I came across a Secret Service Agent who was near the roped off area. My plan was to ask him if there were any way to have the President stop to say "Hi" to Ryan since Ryan was unable to get to the front of the pack earlier to see him....
However- just as we got to the rope, Obama stopped shaking hands, and waved to the crowd and said, "thanks for coming!" I took a chance and shouted, "WAIT, WAIT!" he looked at me, smiled with recognition at Jillian and came over to the rope. (lure them in with the cute baby- works every time! haha) Then I said, "Thank you! I want you to meet my husband- he was injured in Iraq and couldn't make it to the front of the crowd earlier." At this point, Ryan had caught up with me, and got to shake the Presidents hand. Obama thanked Ryan for his service, and Ryan answered with a run-together-sentence about bowling or golfing or something together. The President looked a little confused so I piped in- "We want to bowl with you in the White House before you tear out the bowling alley!" he laughed and said the bowling alley was not going anywhere, but yeah, "we can do that!" He had his special assistant Reggie give us his card, and told us to get in touch to set it up.
Woo Hoo! We're excited! Ryan's been talking about bowling with Obama for awhile now.
We'll keep you posted if it ends up happening- even if not, we got a pretty cool story out of the deal! :)
