Homecoming!

Saturday morning we wore the white and blue and headed to campus for the Homecoming Parade.Or should I say The Greatest Parade on Earth? OK, it wasn't the greatest parade on earth because all of the candy was salt water taffy. But it really was fun. Next year I'm joining the Homecoming Parade committee to make sure there's better candy. Maybe we should have our annual donation go toward the candy fund?

On the walk over Sadie proclaimed repeatedly how cold she was, so we bundled her up. Yes, this dorky look was on purpose.She was freezing, but she wouldn't zip her coat up because she wanted everyone to see her BYU shirt. I'm assuming that she didn't want to be confused with for Ute fan, like he poor baby brother who was dressed in red.

We set up near the DJ, grabbed some free blue pancakes and got ready to hoot and holler. The parade started out a little slow and there were definitely some cheesey floats (if you can call a car with a sticker slapped on the side a float), but we had great entertainment. Like Livy dancing.
And Luke cheering, "GO COUGARS!" My sister actually took enough pictures that when Dustin was looking through them he commented, "It's like I'm watching a movie." But sadly no pictures of Cosmo on top of a van looking oh so awesome dancing with his groupies. Or Nate high-fiving the basketball team. Or the School of Humanities float (car with a sticker that Kathleen cheered very loudly for). Or Dustin foiling the the tweens trying to steal the ball clearly being thrown straight to my kids. You see, we were VERY popular with Dustin looking like this:And this kind of enthusiasm:So we ended up with some really sweet goodies made in China/Thailand. And a toothbrush! And enough balloons that we were worried Luke or Livy might float away

A parade so fun could only be topped by one thing: The Greatest Aunt on Earth. And this time I'm not exaggerating. Aunt Beaney (Kristine -- every great Aunt in our family has some sort of crazy nickname) is everyone's favorite person and we were very lucky she drove down to see us and babysit the little ones for the game (even if she let them stay up until midnight and sent Luke to bed with a cup of ice and a noisy car).

We played and played with Kristine, ate pizza for lunch and left the babies napping and Kyle crocheting furiously (just you wait and see why -- you are going to be really jealous) to go play at the Provo Beach Resort. The Provo Beach Resort has everything. It has a carousel that Sadie rode a million and one times. A mini-bowling lane because we just hadn't bowled enough. And a mini-croquet course. And lots of arcade games including some sort of lame-o computer painting game which cost $2 a pop that Sadie ended up playing multiple times since someone couldn't say no to her. . . Guess who??I think they are actually looking at her creations in this picture. Probably talking about how they were totally worth MORE than $2 for 15 second of fun.

The most terrifying thing there was the ropes course. Nate told Dustin he would do it and immediately regretted it once he was hooked up and facing the first obstacle. I believe the words he uttered were, "Why did I think this would be fun?" I am really really proud of him, though, because despite being terrified he sucked it up and did it. Dustin also won the Dad of the Year Award for holding his hand and baby stepping him through the entire thing. There were two levels (I wish I could tell how high up he was!!) and the bottom level was the easier of the two. When they had finished the bottom level I suggested they go back the way they came and not bother with the upper level. Dustin asked Nate what he wanted to do and Nate picked to head up top!! I was so proud. And also about to vomit at the same time. Nate couldn't even reach any of the stabilizing ropes and I was terrified he was going to fall and freak out. But he didn't. Even when he was waving at us.I have no idea how long it took, but we were all mesmerized and watched the whole thing in awe. How did he grow up so fast?? It probably happened when he lost those two front teeth.

After that ordeal, Nate got some well deserved ice cream, and we took Sadie to the giant playzone which was built like a mini-American Gladiator Training Facility. She talked Kristine into doing circuits which was good because I heard they kept it heated like a sauna to get the future Gladiators of America to sweat off some pounds.

And then because my Aunt has never been there, we had to hit up The Chocolate. Azzgain. Dustin almost vomited at the thought of more sugar, but I disagree. I don't think you can ever eat enough cake/cazookies. And please note that he did, in fact, partake. Luke is a BIG cupcake fan.

At this point I think we all wanted to crawl into our beds and never eat again, but we still had the main event: The Homecoming Game! Yes, it was LAME-ly planned to start at 8:15 pm. Add in the cold front and Sadie's "I'm so cold" freak out that morning, and we decided that Sadie would stay home with Kristine.

The rest of us went to the hotel, where I packed every BYU blanket we own and layered my Arizona born and bred children in a million shirts, gloves and these adorable hats: Kyle (my very talented brother-in-law) crocheted hats for all of us. And I mean *ALL*. Even Luke and Livy have hats. And trust me -- people thought we were awesome. YOU probably think we're awesome. It's all in the hat. It instantly makes you look cute!!

We decided to walk from the hotel since traffic is insane on game day and we were less than a mile away. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. I wish I would have to capture the excitement on my kids' faces. They were in HEAVEN! I was so worried that the game would be a let down and they wouldn't find it fun, but they LOVED it. They cheered and sang the fight song. They stomp and made noise when we were on defense. They drank hot chocolate and ate gross stadium food. They got excited when they saw Cosmo. And the best part -- The Cougars WON!!!! Thank you Cougars!

I can honestly say it was my FAVORITE game ever. And I've been to a lot of BYU football games. I contemplating moving to Utah just so we can get season tickets. And since we have such adorable hats, we now have to go to the Homecoming game every year!