Blazer Fan Fest

For several months before Claire was even born, Matthew and I (Dan) started looking forward to going to the Blazer's Fan Fest. For a little background, you need to know that Matthew and Daddy are both Blazers fans. He can name over half of the team from our times of playing basketball, and pretending to be Blazers. Brandon Roy, of course, is one that Matthew particularly likes. But our hands-down favorite to watch is Greg Oden.

So, shortly after Portland had an early exit in last season's playoffs, I started telling Matthew about Blazer's Fan Fest. I told him how we could go and meet the players (I had been several times before and that was always a cool part of Fan Fest), then we could watch them play in person. I told Matthew about meeting Greg Oden someday when we were playing basketball. This lit him up even more than usual!

The immediate question that he asked: "Right now?!?!?"
My reply: "No, Matthew, later. It will be quite a while."
"After me wake up?"
"No, buddy. Like way after you wake up. Like after baby Claire is born."

I am not making this up. Nearly every time we talked about baby Claire being born, Matthew would say something like, "Then I see Greg Oden!!!!"

Fast forward through several months and one hundred conversations like the one above. Baby Claire is born August 6th, it is a joyous day and mommy and baby are doing well. Mommy and Daddy are filled with elation and we get to see one of the moments we had been waiting for: when Matthew got to meet his sister for the first time.

Matthew walks into the hospital room with Grandma and Grandpa Hickman. He gives a huge smile as he sees Claire for the first time. He spends a few minutes cooing at her and basking in the glory of being a first-time big brother. Then, the inevitable question comes: "Now I see Greg Oden?!?!"

Priceless.

If Greg only knew, right?

Well, we did some explaining about schedule and stuff and, not too awfully long after Claire was born (okay, two months later) we finally went to Blazer Fan Fest.

We met Uncle Tim and Daniel at their house and took the MAX to the Rose Garden. There were approximately 16,000 fans there for the free event (the result of a growing fan base and a non-growing economy). We excitedly waited outside for the doors to open. I kept telling Matthew that we were about to see Greg.

Unfortunately, there were no player meetings this year. I understand since the organization has been trying to rebuild the fan base and that they didn't need to do all those "extra" things to keep growing the franchise any longer. We really did and do understand. It was a bummer for us. But, fortunately, we still got to see Greg Oden.

We were up at the top of the second level, but Matthew could still pick out his basketball hero on the court. Remember, he's only three. He's just a big fan!


Matthew and cousin, Daniel.

Well, we had a great time. It was something that we looked forward to so much that anything would have been great. Matthew had a great time with his cousin Daniel, sitting in the row in front of Uncle Tim and Daddy. We all had a wonderful evening together watching something that we hope can be yet another unifying part of our relationship as father and son: OUR Portland Trailblazers.