Go Cougars (with a little explanation at first)

As is often the case, Saturday morning had us up early and Dentist Husband saying, "What are we going to do as a family today?"    

Several years ago, when my husband's dental school debt was payed off and we had a little more discretionary income, we made a conscious decision to not sit around.  My husband said to me, "As adults, you always hear people talk about memories they had growing up.  We are going to create memories."  A few simple rules were put in place after this conversation.   One, we all had to be together.  That meant, even if we had a new baby, I came along with the baby.  (No, "Mom stays home while Dad goes off with the older kids").  Two, we were not going to have our kids in so many activities, that we were "ruled" by them.  Meaning, no signing up our kids for three different sports/dance/performance teams that took over our week and weekends.  Dentist Husband and I decided we had to honestly look at each activity and decide if the commitment was worth taking any child away from family time.  As a result, my kids all take piano lessons, and do one outside activity.  This has worked for us.  (And leave your critical comments off my blog, I realize for many people having their kids in two different sports all year round works for them.  We tried it and it didn't work for our family.)  

As a result, any three day weekend has us "gone",  whether that means at a hotel in town, taking advantage of their indoor swimming pool during the cold winter in Utah or driving four hours to St. George, Utah, where it is warmer, to stay at hotel and hit golf balls on a driving range. (We are not quite at a point where we can all golf together.)   Any weekend has us looking around locally to find fun things to do as a family.  We have learned a ton about the state of Utah and its many historical sites, learned about small "gems" of parks, stayed in some very strange hotels (once leaving mid-trip when we discovered a transvestite convention was being held in our hotel), gotten very good at bowling (one very cold Winter had us at a local bowling ally every Saturday morning right when they opened with our McDonalds breakfast in tow) and only occasionally have we flown in an airplane to visit places.  It has been car trips 99% of the time, including summer vacations.   

So anyway, this past Saturday morning, we had not planned anything, until we realized Brigham Young University had a home game.  Immediately, we got online and purchased tickets.  One hour later, we were in the car, on our way to Provo.  I LOVED my time at BYU and have many great memories of attending BYU football games as a student.  (Growing up, we had to go our Stake Center to watch BYU football games.  I remember sitting in the Primary room with my parents with a few other BYU devotees and watching the games eating candy bars purchased on our way out there.  I was raised with a true love of BYU football.) 

Below are some pictures from the game.  We arrived early and ran into a boy from my ward growing up.  (Hi Jonathan).  I took it as a sign that it was going to be a great day and it was.  

They were selling $10 fan t-shirts right when we walked in and we bought one for everyone.  And it is true, "Every day is game day."  

We had seats that were in the shade for the last 1/2 of the game, but before that happened, Toothsome #4 was hot, so I told her to lay down at my feet to get in the shade.  She promptly fell asleep.  

It was a great game.  We destroyed Weber State (as expected, which is why we were able to buy tickets, game day with no problem) and I got to sing the BYU fight song many times (yes, I know all of the words), relive my happy BYU student memories and enjoy a great day with my family.  You can't have a better Saturday than that.