Golf Anniversary Date

Saturday morning Clark scheduled a tee time for the both of us and borrowed some clubs from Grandma Earley. We both headed to South Mountain and enjoyed a few hours of (trying) to hit some golf balls. We had a few good holes and a few rough ones (and, frankly, as the morning wore on, we both got tired and just started to perform poorly). The best part of our date was that we got to ride around in a golf cart!

 (Notice that the club is already past the ball. That means I totally whiffed this shot! Thanks for the evidence, Clark!)

Idaho State Football

Our friend Matt had some extra tickets to the Idaho State football game, so our little family got to go the happy sporting event. The girls fell asleep during the first quarter (seriously, our kids can sleep anywhere!) but when they woke up, we got them to cheer for the tigers, even though the fact that we were in a dome stadium which meant Azucena hated all the noise. :)

Ogden Temple Open House and BYU Football Scrimmage

When we heard that the Ogden temple was having an open house, we immediately picked up tickets so we could take the girls. Looking at our calendar, it turned out that one of the best days for us to head down to Utah would also be the same day as the BYU fall football scrimmage. Coincidence, no? :D

 The temple is beautiful. I loved the exterior, I loved the interior, and the girls loved being at the temple. Azucena asks daily if we can go inside the temple. She called the celestial room the "beautiful room." We didn't get a shot of the family outside of the temple (too many other folks there) but used the "selfie" spot inside the information tent to grab a quick pic. Also, I love that they put the booties on toddlers and babies. :D

 When we finished with the tour, we had about two hours to drive the 80 miles to Provo--which we needed, since it was rush hour on a Friday. But other than having to sit in a car for what felt like forever (thank you, pregnancy) we were safe and still made it to the game just in time. We were even able to meet up with the Tracys. We love when we get to see them!

Adelaide has started to say "cheese!" when I pull out the camera

After the scrimmage, we were able to go on the field and let the girls play a bit, and we even chatted with Christian Stewart, this year's back-up quarterback, who we bugged a little bit last year because he looks like like Tyler. We then picked up Zupas and visited Kristen (no pics, dang it!) for a while. We love seeing our Utah friends and feel bad that we don't have lots of time anytime we visit. I wish we could have a giant party every time we're in town so we can see 50 of you at once!

California - Day Three

The next stop on our California trip was Oakland and San Francisco! We were so excited to be able to visit both. Our first stop was the Oakland temple were my parents were sealed for time and all eternity over 30 years ago. The girls loved the Christus statue and looking at all the flowers on the grounds. And, true to form, they were doing construction at the temple, so the water was turned off and we had to be careful about the angles we took pictures from. :D

 After leaving the temple, we swung by M5 Industries to get a quick "we've been there!" shot. (Due to insurance reasons, you can't actually go inside or tour or interact with the good folks of Mythbusters, lol.) It was fun and I think it made Clark feel a little better about leaving home for a whole week. ;)

We then visited the Golden Gate. I love that bridge so much! Unfortunately, Azucena has never liked loud crowds so she cried almost the entire time. We have a great shot on Clark's phone of her just crying her eyes out while we're on the bridge. Oh well. Maybe next time she'll appreciate the beauty of the Golden Gate. :)

 Last but not least, we went to AT&T park for the Giants v Braves game. This was the entire reason we went on this week. Clark's favorite team growing up was the Braves. Unfortunately, his favorite player retired last year, but he still got to see some great plays--including Colvin's out-of-the-park home run at his first at-bat! Crazy!

Go Cougars! (August 10th)

BYU had their fall preview scrimmage on Saturday morning, so we woke up bright and early, threw the girls in their car seats (really, we pulled them out of bed and buckled them into the car), and made the long trek down to Provo. Even though we weren't there too early, we still got great seats--only about three rows up from the field! Clark was happy to see his Cougars in person one last time before moving out of Utah. Plus, it turned out Jer, Kasie and their girls had gone down as well, and it was nice to say good-bye in person.

BYU vs Santa Clara

Thanks, Emily, for the basketball tickets! Azucena LOVED being there!

The student section (see the crazy heads?)

BYU Basketball

I think Clark is a proud papa right now. Our daughter was able to go to both a football and basketball game this season. :) She was dressed in her cougar outfit both times (see? I got a picture this time!) and her favorite part was still singing the Fight Song on Daddy's shoulders. However, the surprising bit was that now when she sees a Cougar, she puts her hand up in the air and says "wahwahwahwah?" which is her way of asking us to do the "rah, rah, rah-rah-rah" chant. She'll throw her hands up and do the rolling arm motions, too! (No video yet, since it's a VERY recent development!)

Aw, so cute!

New student section. With balloons!

I've got to admit, they know how to get the blood pumping at the beginning of a game!

BYU vs Hawaii

My (real) anniversary present to Clark was getting tickets to a football game. Unfortunately, there were a LOT of late Thursday night home games this season (really? An 8 p.m. start time on a Thursday? What about folks that have to work?!) so we couldn't go until over a month after our real anniversary. Clark said he didn't care, though, since it meant we could go to a game and spend time doing what he loves. :) We made a day of it and visited some friends in Wymount, got dinner at Subway, and hung out with the marching band before the show. 

   Azucena was SUPER well behaved, all things considered. She even slept for 15 - 20 minutes during the second quarter!  

When it started to get chilly, we put Azucena's Cosmo suit on. She looked awesome, but didn't stay still long enough for any decent pictures. Which is why I took a video. :D

Owlz Game (June 22)

As we all know, Clark loves sports. He really hopes that our children love sports too (whether or not they play them). So, of course, he really wanted to go to a lot of events this year. Unfortunately, what with school and moving and second pregnancy and such, we haven't been able to go to many things. Happily, we did make it to an Owlz game. We only made it to about six and a half innings, though--Azucena just can't handle focusing on something for so long. :)

 

 In case you've wondered, this is Clark's real smile. I love when I get it on camera!

 
And we were so lucky to get seats pretty much right behind home plate. I mean, look how close we are! (Oh, and while we were there, at least two people broke their bats while at the plate. Crazy, eh?!)

Random Rants, the Sports version, pt. 1

One of the things that bothers me about sports is how overly-passionate/juvenile some people can be. I know it's not everyone (just like anything else that happens out there) but, hey, isn't the saying that "one bad egg can rot the whole barrel"? (I got it wrong on purpose to help lighten the mood of my rant. Name the movie and you win!)

Some stories I've heard recently:

1. The USU student section not cheering for the first three minutes of the basketball game in protest. Why would you deny your team (the whole reason you're there) of your support? It's just dumb. (See one of the articles about this here.)

2. The U of U "fans" booed their team when they came back from halftime, due to a "poor" performance during the first half. (I couldn't find an article to link to, sorry.) Why would you do that to the team you're there to support? Sure, they're not winning, but do you really think negative reinforcement is going to help them improve? Do you think they went into their halftime chat saying, "hey, we don't have to try any harder because we're doing everything right"? No. Show them you SUPPORT them. Maybe you don't feel like cheering because you're upset but, guess what?, they're upset, too.

3. Found this article about the need (yes, it's a need) to teach kids about sportsmanlike conduct and do things as simple as shake each others' hands at the beginning and end of a game. If the athletes, coaches, and referees aren't going to do something as simple as congratulate/wish luck to each other, then why would the fans?

4. I went to a rivalry football game and was hoping to prove others wrong about how bad the "other" fans were. However, when accident involving a vendor-bought soda and several fans happened, I wasn't treated nicely or with forgiveness. I really hope that, away from the game and the high tensions, those people found it in their heart to forgive me/the vendor and brush off the incident.

I believe the point of a sporting event is to support a team of athletes into doing well. This means sticking with them through the end of the game (win or lose) and also appreciating good opponents (why boo them? They're just trying their best, like your team is).

Football Season

It's fall (it even feels like fall!) and that means football season out here in Cougar country. A few weeks ago, Clark really wanted to spoil our daughter so he went out and bought her some BYU onesies to wear to the football games. These pictures are from the BYU v Ole Miss game (September 3rd) at the Tracys house. We sure love seeing them!

the Owlz!

We have a coupon thing that would've given us a pretty sweet date deal to the Owlz game. However, we were unable to find it, since everything is in a different spot since the move. Clark made the executive decision to go to the game anyway, since it was the last of the season and we hadn't been at all the rest of the year (well, I hadn't). When we got there, someone was handing out coupons for an even better deal: $1 tickets and $1 concessions! Plus, the whole reason we wanted to go was that the first so-many fans that showed up got a free beanie (yeah, we're free-loaders). So for $4 we got two seats, a soda, a popcorn, and two beanies. :) We didn't stay past the seventh inning stretch, since Azucena needed to get some rest, but the game was great and we enjoyed being out in the lovely weather.

Father and daughter!

Family shot!

Brady's Track Meet!

Brady was able to participate in the UVU invitational the first Saturday of April. The shot that I have of his time is actually incorrect due to some issue that happened at check in, but his coach timed him and it turns out he ran the two-mile in 11:25 which is pretty darn awesome!