50% Invested

Yesterday was the season opener for the BYU Cougar football team. When we knew we were going to be close for a year, we splurged and bought four season tickets for our family. I'm a girl who likes football, my boys like football and Jay tolerates it so that he can spend time with the rest of us (it's hard to emote sarcasm in the written word so here's a little winky guy so that my meaning is conveyed;-)).

Unfortunately for him, his call debut and his holiday shift fell on this weekend. He had to switch some stuff around, which is painful for a guy who doesn't like to rock the boat, but managed to make it to the game by halftime. This is what he missed:

The game didn't start until 3:30 pm, so I had some stalling to do so that everyone had enough energy and happy thoughts to enjoy the game. I had originally thought about going to campus before the game to hit the WILK and buy some t-shirts but by the time I would have needed to leave my house to get down there to shop AND make it to the game on time, I knew I didn't want or need to punish myself that much. I told the boys that we'd get t-shirts another time, definitely before the next game, but that didn't make them feel better as we walked to the stadium alongside the masses wearing their Cougar Blue. I believe the new theme for the year, or at least what some marketing genius decided would produce the most guilt for parents who didn't buy their kids t-shirts, is "Fully Invested".

Kelly, who has a mother's heart and is in the running for best sister-in-law ever, called me about an hour before I was planning on leaving, with an offer to watch Henry during the game. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew he'd be hard to bring, but I mostly figured it would be like having him at church, except he could freely make noise and lots of it.

But I took her up on her offer after she reminded me that it was possible Jay would never make it to the game and once there, I was so glad I didn't have him. When we parked, my van thermostat read 97 degrees! We had to walk almost a mile to the stadium and there were so many people everywhere. I had a hand on each of my boys and it was still stressful. Our hands were sweaty and we could hear the speakers in the stadium announcing the players and Seth wanted to be there already but Sammy couldn't go any faster. At the stadium, we hiked up to our seats that are five rows from the top. Thankfully, luckily, happily...our tickets are on the west side and we had shade. I was dripping sweat by the time we sat down. I could feel it trickling down my back and the hair on my neck was wet. It would have been so hard with Henry there. Even without him, I was wondering if I should walk back and sell my tickets to the Japanese men who were holding a sign outside the stadium that said, "Will pay handsomely for tickets." Very tempting.

There is a rule against bringing ANYTHING inside the stadium. Purses are allowed but they are checked and they can't be big. No water, no food. We were really trying to get to our seats for the opening kick-off so didn't stop off at a concession stand before making our hike. About 2 minutes into the game and Sammy started telling me how thirsty he was. His cheeks were red and I was actually thirsty too but we had just sat down and the stairs were still crowded with people getting to their seats. I told him to wait.

I made it to the second quarter, but could hold Sammy off no longer. The game held no interest for a boy about to die. Once again thankful I didn't have to lug Henry on my hip, we descended to the concession stand and spent $10 on drinks. Two water bottles and a soda. They really meant FULLY invested.

I love the mountains here! I've always thought this has to be one of the most picturesque stadiums in the country.

Jay wishes our seats were better but I thought they were great.

I still don't know who any of the players are but Go Cougar Go!

With hydration and Dad around, the game became truly fun. Ty Detmer's and Gifford Nielsen's jerseys were retired at halftime. The band sounded great, the cheerleaders did all sorts of fun stunts and Cosmo is a lot more entertaining to me now than he was when I was eighteen. BYU looks decent and the rest of the game we screamed and cheered and sang and stomped our feet and even sang Popcorn Popping (still playing all the crowd favorites!). Even better, our team won, Seth has great material for his classroom weekend journal (I have a feeling it's all going to be about our awful punter. His primary teacher told me Seth was going on and on about BYU's weak kicking game) and I never have to do it without Jay again!

All smiles now!

Well...almost.