A hug from the president



A very tired boy during the late-night Obama rally.

When a friend of mine asked if I was interested in tickets to an Obama rally being held two days before the 2012 election, my initial thought was, "YES!" Unfortunately, however, Cory was out of town and I didn't think I'd be able to handle taking Henry on my own, so I declined. Two days later, when I found out that Dave Matthews would be opening for President Obama, I decided I had to at least try to make it work. 

With VIP tickets in-hand, my sister, her friend, Henry, and I headed to President Obama's rally in Aurora, Colo.--one of his last of the election.

 

Knowing that it would be a late night, I brought lots of snacks for Henry, along with an umbrella stroller for him to sit in. About 30 minutes before the doors opened, a campaign worker saw my stroller and called me to the front of the VIP line. He said he didn't want my stroller to get run over by the crowd when they opened the doors, so he allowed Henry and I to go in first.

 

The next thing I knew, Henry and I were in the front row awaiting the start of the rally. My sister and her friend soon joined us and the show began. By this time, it was about 9:00 at night and Henry was fast asleep in his stroller. He slept through speeches of senators and our governor, and even through Dave Matthews' entire acoustic performance. After Dave Matthews was finished, Henry woke up and told me that he had peed in his pants while he was sleeping. I had no spare clothes, so he was forced to sit in his wet pants. After a couple of minutes, he was asleep again, and we all waited for President Obama to come on stage.

After what seemed like an eternity, there he was--the President of the United States. I picked Henry up from his stroller, yelling over the crowd, "There he is, Henry! It's President Obama!" Henry wouldn't wake up (as you see from the photo above) until the middle of the president's speech, at which time Henry began cheering and clapping with the crowd.

 

After the president was finished speaking, he walked down the stairs toward us and began shaking hands with people in the audience. As he got closer to us, I told Henry to say, "Hi, President Obama!" But, when Obama arrived, Henry instead put both of his arms out toward the president and gave him a big hug.

 

He hugged the president. With pee in his pants.(Now there's a memory!)

 

I then shook the president's hand and said "Thank you so much!" He then patted both Henry and I on the head at the same time.

 

It was unbelievable. Just incredible.

 

We got home at midnight and Henry went right to sleep. I stayed up to document the experience for Henry. He hugged the President of the United States when he was nearly four-years-old, and he had pee in his pants.