Mounties before Victory Ceremony

Wednesday was a very exciting day for us…we went  to a Victory Ceremony for the winners of the Olympics.  It was in a stadium called BC place.  That is the same place where the Opening Ceremonies took place.  Before the ceremony started the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raised the Olympic flag.  At the ceremony we saw Maelle Ricker from Canada get a gold medal in person and we also saw Lindsay Vonn of the United States get her gold medal live on the jumbotron.  It was very exciting to see our flag get raised and I put my hand over my heart and stood for all the national anthems that were played for the winners.  We heard the Canadian and US anthems and also the Russian and Korean one.  It was interesting to hear them and very cool to be there to see them get their medals.  After each gold medal there was a shower of gold confetti that popped out.

Maelle Ricker from Canada with her gold medal as the flags are raised

The ceremony also included a concert and it was our first one ever.  The singer was from Alberta and his name was Paul Brandt.  It was awesome and I liked the music.  Lauren got very tired and fell asleep in her seat.  We were out very late!

My favorite part of the night was when the confetti shot up into the air after they got their medals.  Laurens favorite part was the big countdown we did at the start of the concert.

Lauren and Courtney at the US- Finland game with their cowbells

On Thursday we went to UBC Thunderbird Arena to watch the US Women’s Hockey team play against Finland.  It was magnificent to see our team win.  USA got six points and Finland got zero.  The best part of the game for me was making noise for my team with the new cowbell that my parents bought me.  I thought that was very cool.

Lauren gets on the Jumbotron during the game

Every time that our team scored we rang our bells.  We even got on the jumbotron.  The camera man took a movie of the crowd and played it on the screen.  Mom even got a picture of Lauren on the TV.  The hockey game was very cool.  The teams changed sides each period and we sat behind the goal so we had a really good view.  At the beginning of the game the US team gathered around the goal to say a prayer or have a pep talk.  At the end of the game both teams got in a got in a circle at the center of the ice and swung their sticks from inside to outside to salute the fans.

Laurens favorite part of the game was seeing herself on TV.  My favorite part was the noise and making some noise with our cowbells.  Everyone was very excited.

At the end of the game both teams got in a circle and raised their sticks to salute the fans