Game Day

Twenty some odd years ago, as a brand new freshman at BYU,  I camped outside of the Marriott Center to buy season tickets to the football games.  Although not near as big as a sport's fan as most of the male members in my family, my dad had raised me to believe that attending BYU games in person was an important part of the college experience and I was excited.    I was a faithful fan and often went home hoarse at the end of games.

In the ensuing couple of decades since my college days,  I've learned that, other than my own kids' sporting events,  BYU football is practically the only sport I care about in the slightest.   And even then, watching it on tv is not near as much fun as watching it live, but unfortunately their schedule doesn't bring them out east all that often.  So when Glen announced a couple of months ago that BYU was coming to play UVA, I eagerly gave my approval about having the whole family attend.

This past Saturday morning we awoke bright and early and bedecked ourselves (and our car) in Cougar attire and enjoyed the opportunity to drive around "enemy territory".  First we went apple and peach picking (post coming later) and then met friends for a tailgating party.

After a fun afternoon of  food, fun,  and friends, we drove to the game and ended up parking about 1-1/2 miles from stadium.  We sat with friends in the nosebleed section where Emma took the term a little too literally and randomly developed a nosebleed within seconds of arriving.

It was a very hot and humid day and a couple of the kids (Ellie in particular) spent the first quarter grumpy and complaining.  No one had scored yet, we were far away from the action, and we all had a layer of sweat dripping down our faces.

It was looking to be a long and miserably hot game until right right at the end of the first quarter, we were greeted with this message....

At the time we hadn't heard a single clap of thunder, but still we were not eager to walk the 1-1/2 miles back to our car with an impending storm approaching.  

So we holed up in the first air conditioned place we could find...a laundromat, which actually didn't turn out to be such a bad place weather the storm.  There were tables and chairs to sit at, vending machines, and not very many other people who had discovered it.  We spent about an hour there before venturing out to explore campus a bit.

While wandering we met up with my brother and his son, Lincoln....a development which made Ellie very happy!

About two hours after closing the stadium, the game restarted and we took over the seats my other brother (Peter) and his family had abandoned because they did not want to wait out the storm.  Instead of worrying about nosebleeds now, we were in the 7th row---a fa  it was a lot easier to get into the game from up close.

Then a little while later it started raining again....really, really hard.    There wasn't any thunder, so the game went on, but it dumped rain for 1/2 hour or so and it only took a couple of minutes before we were pretty much as wet as if we had jumped into a lake with our clothes on.   Funny thing though....the rain seemed to perk everyone up.  Instead of lying across our laps complaining about how boring it was, Ellie was energized by the rain and could be found the remainder of the game dancing on the benches with her cousin Lincoln and yelling, "This is Awesome!" 

After the rain stopped, I pulled my camera back out, we laughed at our wrinkly fingers...

wrung out our clothes, and spent the rest of the game on our feet cheering  for our Cougs.

Sadly, the game did not end the way we'd hoped, but alas it did not matter.  It was a day we won't soon forget and I am already looking forward to the next game that brings the Cougars out this way!