Three Honors

July 4th, 2011 was a special day for my wife and me. We had the honor of being the first non-family members invited to participate in the Annual deClouet Croquet Tournament. Being invited to participate meant a lot to us since it gave us the chance to be a part of their family celebration during a special holiday. This honor was followed closely on the heels by a second one when I had the incredible luck of actually winning the tournament! There was a period of time that day where I was a little nervous I would not be invited back...primarily because the margin of victory was a bit high. Not sure what came over me really, but for that one hour I was a croquet phenom.

Regardless, I have mentioned all of this before and the deClouets have of course never held that brief moment of luck against me and kept inviting us back into their home. Phew. So if I have mentioned it before, you may be wondering why I bring it up a second time...fair question.

On the heels of the win, I was allowed to bring home the official engraved trophy to our house for one week. Yes, it is engraved with my name and the year of the victory. The deClouets take this seriously.

And yes, I have unfortunately held onto the trophy for a little bit longer than I was originally permitted. The reason being, I needed to complete the third honor, and officially celebrate this triumph with the Lafayette City-Parish  President, Joey Durel. What better way to honor the success right? So today I took a 20 minute break from work and headed on down to Mr. Durel's office in an attempt to get a celebratory photo with the famous trophy. I am proud to say that the mission was a success and the photo will soon be framed on my wall! Check it out! Special thanks to Mr. Durel for being so willing to spare a minute of his time - pretty awesome.

With this third honor completed, I will be regretfully returning the deClouet family croquet trophy back to its official home tomorrow and I can close out this chapter of the saga. I have already started training for next year and will be ready to defend the title.