Thank you!

Alyssa and I were blown away by the number of people who showed up to make the Team Athena Benefit Recital such a success. Close to 75 friends and family members were in attendance! With their contributions, we were able to raise $782 to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Wow!

If you weren't there, you really missed out on something special. Alyssa gave an unbelievably beautiful performance and friends who aren't the biggest classical music fans came away from it saying how much fun they had. Those who love classical music said to me, "It's like I was listening to a professional recording!" Always her own harshest critic, even Alyssa had to admit she sounded pretty darn good. Of course, I am far from impartial when it comes to being a fan of Alyssa's playing, but this was probably the best I've ever heard her. You would never have guessed that Alyssa hadn't put on a recital in eight years. She knocked everyone's socks off.

I recorded the concert on our Flip video camera, so we hope to have some video up in a couple of days. In addition to that, we'll also have a professional grade recording thanks to our amazing fellow team member Whitney, who taped the performance on her video camera. We should also have CDs available at some point when we get the audio file from the church. Many thanks to Scott Norris and Turner Stokes for being our sound and tech guys for the afternoon. We couldn't have done it without them.

At this point in our lives, we have many friends with children and we were jazzed to have so many little ones in attendance! The "rocking room" was packed to the gills. Those are going to be some cultured kids.

After cleaning up the church, we headed home to prepare for a celebratory dinner out with Alyssa's mom and dad. As we talked about the recital during dinner, I realized that I had forgotten to thank the two of them for bringing such an amazing, beautiful and ridiculously talented person into existence. So I thanked them then. I cannot imagine my life without Alyssa. She brings so much beauty into the world.

So, friends, thank you. Thank you for traveling so many miles. Thank you for spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon inside. Thank you for giving so generously of your time and of your bank accounts. Mostly, just thank you for being a part of our lives. We are so blessed to know you all.