Andy volunteered with the Romney campaign and constantly received emails. His assignment during the Republican Primaries was to drive from poll place to poll place and then text in numbers to their headquarters. A few days before the election, he got an email announcing a rally in a warehouse downtown.
We thought this would be kind of neat to go to. Well, we walk in with our 4 kids and quickly get pulled to the front where risers are set up as a backdrop to the stage. They tried to get all different ages, ethnicity, classes, etc. We got there shortly after 7, thinking the rally started at 8, as was scheduled.
We didn't think Emily would make it waiting and standing for so long, so we sent her over to sit with some friends in their seats. The woman next to her in red is her super-fantastic primary teacher that Em just loves! Ben and Annie got to play our phones until a few minutes before 9, when it really started. We were told absolutely no electronics while the cameras were on so all faces were looking at Mitt.
Mitt and Ann came in; it was pretty cool! They stopped for a few minutes to say hello to the Holleys, a senior missionary couple that is serving in our ward at church.
Oh, it was so touching. Mitt and Elder Holley were companions while serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints many years ago, as 20 year old boys. They haven't seen one another since...after the rally, the Holleys went back and had time to catch up with the Romneys.
Lots of cheering and hot bright lights!!!
Since we were on the front row right behind the stage, we were some of the first to shake hands and chat with the Romneys. I had on my 2002 Olympics jacket from when the games were held in Utah - when Andy volunteered, He and Ann chatted for a good 5-10 minutes about The Games... :)
Really like this woman!!! It was a great experience, definitely not something I have ever done before! However, I later learned that I should have given the kids actually vocabulary words for where we had been. The kids went to school late, wearing their stickers. That night at a Girl Scout meeting, a mom came up to me with a confused look on her face. "Annie said she met the President today?" Ben told his friends we went somewhere when they talked about other people doing wrong things and then everyone clapped. AUGHH!!! Thankfully, I could explain more fully over the next few days and gave them words to describe their experiences - now that I knew what a rally was!
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