Will Rogers {the presentation}
Will Rogers made an appearance at our homeschool campus this week…he was even cuter than what I remembered from the movies. As hard as I tried not to, I couldn’t help telling him how cute I thought he was. He flashed that cowboy grin and let me have my moment.
(photo by Jessie Dewey because I was fan-girling)
In January I shared about our trip to the Will Rogers Memorial and Hudson’s school project. Since the beginning of the year, he has been working on a “Faces of History” project. He was required to pick someone from American history, research that person, write a research paper, and give a presentation in first person (as the person he chose).
He chose Will Rogers. In anticipation of the presentation, he got his grand aunt (my aunt) to make him custom chaps. Back when Hudson was a baby my aunt owned Hawg Hugger Leather. She created custom leather chaps for motorcycle riders looking for something more exciting than the basic black leather chaps. She has beat cancer multiple times, however, the last round forced her out of the chap making business. This was her first pair of chaps to make in nearly 1o years..and her first cowboy chaps. We will treasure these and pass them down in the family.
The presentations were held at our homeschool campus, so he wanted a background more fitting to Will Rogers the performer. For the backdrop we took used the outdoor movie screen we made our youngest’s first birthday. 
The 6th graders were each in different rooms and the rest of the student body and parents traveled from room to room hearing the presentations. The chaps and cowboy hat were killing me.
We stepped outside to get a few group and individual shots. He is always such a good sport when it comes to letting me take his picture. One of his friends joked with him that it looked like he was posing for senior pictures. He just smiled and let me keep shooting. I’m so grateful he doesn’t mind supporting me in something he knows I love.
I also wanted to update you all that he made it as a finalist in The National Memory Master competition. He will compete on April 30th against 15 other finalists.
When the announcement was made public, I scrambled to get our family and his friends that live really close to meet us at an ice cream shop to surprise him with the news. He had no idea what was going on and was so confused when the restaurant was filling up with everyone he knows. He thought we were surprising his older brother, whose birthday was 2 days later.
I looked around that room knowing everyone there had dropped everything with about an hour’s notice to come celebrate Hudson. It is such a gift to be loved like that – to simply show up in someone’s life speaks love incredibly loudly.
I’m also truly grateful for those of you here that have celebrated with my family and mourned with my family through the years. You guys are the best! Thank you!
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