The Rogers Family Epic Adventure

One of my very favorite memories of BYU is going to the football games. So when Dustin brought home the Rise Up football shirts for all the kids I told him that it was time to take the kids to a game. And the Homecoming game fell right in the middle of our Fall Break. EVEN BETTER!

Now the week before we drove up to Utah the weather in Arizona was in the 100s STILL. And Utah was hitting 80. However, I seem to have an ancient curse which means I being snow with me anytime I plan a trip. Especially a trip to Utah. I probably shouldn't have been surprised that the day we drove up we brought a horrible, dreary storm that alternated between snow, rain and slush. I personally do not enjoy being cold, but the kids got snowed on and they were really happy so I might forgive the state of Utah one day.

We actually left after dinner one night and drove up to Flagstaff so we wouldn't have to deal with traffic in the morning. I'm not sure this was such a great idea because Luke stayed up all night throwing a disco party in his pack 'n play.

Wednesday we rolled into town in time for dinner served with a side of insanity! Sadie, my sister (Kathleen/Lola) and niece Livy are all born within a week of each other in the month of January. This means they all belong to a very special made-up club: The January Girls Club. The month before our trip to Utah, Sadie *needed* to talk to Aunt Lola every night and tell her what was needed for their January Girl Club Party. Namely candy canes, candy corn and a shiny new table. Yes, Sadie is part elf (if you don't get that reference, you are really missing out on the greatest Holiday movie ever made). SO we walked into the house and there was candy EVERYWHERE! And balloons! Oh my the balloons. And STAIRS! Stairs which Luke could run up and then promptly fly down on his belly. It was a very fun evening. And my sister who usually cooks for two, managed to feed a family of 9 including very fancy vegetables.

Thursday we decided to hit BYU before it got too busy. Our first stop was the Bean Museum. The Bean Museum is pretty much a glorified trophy room of some hunter. There are loads of stuffed creatures, often in menacing positions and the upstairs is just a wall of heads. Case in point -- that "lion lunging at a gazelle" exhibit ROTATES!! And there is a Polar Bear "Bigger than Dad" in full attack stance. My kids LOVED it. Especially my animal obsessed Luke. He could not contain his excitement as he ran around that place. I kept trying to shush him when someone informed me that it was not a library, so he would be fine. Besides there were a dozen other children, all of them completely unattended and crawling under the ropes and laying on the displays. And one little boy following Livy around trying to beat her up. Where *WAS* his mother??? A little enthusiasm was not going to destroy the place. And really, can you ever hear "ROOOOOOOOOOAR" too much?

Next we headed over to campus to go bowling. I can't remember why, but one of the kids noted that "Everyone is so NICE here." Yes, yes they are. Nate and Sadie kept on pointing out all the "BYU"s they could find -- the banners, the door mats, the fliers. . . I had to remind them that we were in fact AT BYU. Sadie would then inform everyone, "Did you know my mom went to school here?" Even in the bathroom. They would then melt into a puddle at her dimples and beg to take her home. Just kidding, they're college students and totally self centered. They just melted.

We suited up in our very finest bowling shoes and Sadie was up first. By the way have you ever noticed how adorable Sadie looks in bowling shoes? I swear she's been bowling before, so I don't know what she was thinking when she took off running down a very waxy bowling lane. She slipped, fell and landed with a bowling ball on her chest. I was so freaked out that I took off running after her and proceeded to fall on my butt (back??? I obviously have a concussion from the event and can't remember) as well. This was also while Luke was running all over screaming, "BALL! BALL!" And shot putting 15 pound bowling balls all over the bowling center. It was not our best start.

Luckily for all the students in Bowling 101 who witnessed what their life will be like in exactly one decade, we settled into a groove and things only got better. Like we decided to let Luke and Livy take some turns. And Luke bowled MULTIPLE strikes.We used the little trainging slide which he loved and then we would all cheer as the ball very slooooooowly made it's way down the lane. Luke would literally jump up and down the entire time. FINALLY when it hit the pins we would all celebrate. Luke and Livy even had a little hand holding dance. And then all the male students in Bowling 101 got down on their knees and proposed to the first girl they could find because they could not WAIT ten years for their own cuteness.

After that we hit the Cougar Eat. At lunch time. It was chaos. I'm glad we didn't lose any children. I can't remember much else happened. Luke only ate ice and a roll. I ended up with orange soda all over me, but Kathleen had a Tide to GO! pen so all was saved. Someone was wearing a red sweatshirt and Nate almost booed them. We ran as fast as we could to the BYU Bookstore, where it turned out we did not own every BYU item ever made. But never fear because we do now. Actually that is a lie -- I think we were very restrained.

We managed to do all that before nap time. Actually it was well passed nap time, so we raced home and put Luke and Livy down. Then Ellie, Kathleen and I went up to Tai Pan Trading. They had all of their holiday stuff out and I was completely overwhelmed. I ended up just stalking people's carts and asking them where they got things that I liked.

For dinner we hit up Guru's, which is one of our very favorite places to eat in Provo. I think there was lots more non-eating and Sadie may have yelled, "This chicken tastes like barf," so we headed home for bed and Scribblish.

Friday was another cold and dreary day so we decided to spend it swimming at our Hotel pool. I did not actually step foot in the pool (because it was freezing and I'm from Arizona, so I only like the pool when it feels like a bathtub) and entertained the little kids in the hot tub instead. Dustin and Nate ditched us early on and went to hike the Y.There are loads of pictures form this hike and I wasn't there so I don't have too many cute stories to tell. All I know is that Nate wants everyone to come next time and his favorite part was having peanut butter pretzels with his dad at the top.Ahhh! They are so handsome.When they were done they hit up Burger's Supreme for lunch and shakes. Also one of Nate's favorite memories.

Back at the Funny Farm (I will skip the scene we made running through the hotel in our swimsuits and towels chasing Luke and trying to find a key since I wish to erase that from my memory) we had 4 heads of hair to dry so we didn't get anywhere too fast and hit up Smash Burger for lunch, put the little ones down for a nap and went to paint pottery.

The second we walked in, Nate sees a GIANT coffee mug (literally giant. It was larger than my kitchen sink) and says, "I want to paint that." Seeing as we were spending a small fortune at every meal on food that was not even being eaten and that I, in fact, do not enjoy coffee, I had to say no. I could have bathed Luke in that mug. We then spent thirty minutes trying to find things that I deemed acceptable to paint. Nate would later claim, "I just wanted to paint something for my mom," but I know the true story. His first choices included a surf board, a jet plane, a football and a race car. We finally settled on a monster cookie jar.
Sadie went for suck up value and picked a cupcake for the January Girls Club.
And Ellie painted a birthday plate. Aunt Lola very generously treated the kids to the whole experience. That is another reason why she is the BESTEST SISTER EVER! We can't wait to see how everything turned out. In December. Because nothing was going to be ready until Wednesday.

We went to Zupa's for dinner. This seemed like a good idea since I was dying for some greens at this point, but the place was INSANELY packed. I forgot how crazy it is to eat in Provo. On a weekend. Homecoming weekend no less. The line was out the door in the rain. I really hope we get one down here, though, because it was yummy. And then we went to my next favorite place: The Chocolate. Wait! You've heard me talk about it before? Like a million times?? Well this time even my sister, "The Chocolate is Overrated" Kathleen, fell in love. She is a big cazookie fan.

After that we thought, "We haven't spent enough money today!" so we headed to the mall. While the kids played at the play area my sister took me to the cutest clothing store: Urban Wear. I am so jealous of everyone in Utah. They don't even have an on-line store, but I did get some cute stuff and then the check out lady and I eloped because we loved each other so much.

So those were our first two jammed packed days in Utah. I'm kind of exhausted just thinking about it, so you'll have to wait for the glory that was Homecoming!