Kids Meet NFL Players, Get Hugs!

The kids and I stood in line for an hour at the local zoo, waiting to meet Green Bay Packers Pro Bowl Receiver Donald Driver and Coach Edgar Bennett. It wasn't so bad, because the zoo keepers brought around animals for the kids to see while waiting. A parrot said "hello" to the kids.

John asked the parrot if he could say "Donald Driver." The parrot just stared. Must be a Vikings fan.

When the time arrived to meet Donald Driver, Belle gave him a picture she drew of him:

Donald loved it and said, "Thank you Darling," and gave her a hug!

Then Donald said to Johnny, "Hey kid, come here." Johnny turned and ran away screaming. Donald hadn't meant to scare him, and Johnny's just shy. So Donald pulled me out to exercise with him and the kids. Except Johnny didn't want to move. So I had to run in place while holding 50-pound John. Donald jokingly asked me to "get those knees up!"

Belle and the other 10 kids ran wind sprints with the Packers, and I had to run with Johnny on my shoulders. Luckily, Coach Bennett noticed my jersey -- bearing the name and number of Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- and asked me to run slowly to mimic the star QB. Bennett laughed and cheered my modest gait.

Most kids wore Packers gear, but of course there were two kids in Bears jerseys. Donald made them do twice the jumping jacks. The kids took it well and Donald was quite sporting with them afterward.

It was a lot of fun and well worth the wait. Speaking of waiting, later in the day the kids were playing with dolls and Belle said, "Daddy, we have five girls and one boy in our pretend family."

"And how many bathrooms are in your pretend house?" I asked.

"One," Belle said.

"Uh-oh," I said. That poor boy would do a lot of waiting in his pretend life.

"But Daddy," John declared, "the bathroom has five potties!"