Happy Birthday, Aimee!

So, besides the Utes victory over Air Force and my Yankees making it into the World Series (YAY!), this past weekend was also my sister, Aimee's, birthday.

Wow. Busy weekend.

Sunday morning we headed down to "The Devil's Land," as Mike likes to call anything South of 21st South to see my nephews in their Primary Program. They both had speaking parts this year and did a fabulous job! Yes, my mom and Aimee cried, but what else is to be expected from this family? We cry when we read the phone book.

Then we headed back to Aimee and Trent's house for a small party in celebration of my sister. Mike and I bought her a cookie jar shaped like a cupcake. It was adorable and I think I might have to go back and buy one for myself.

Here's Aimee opening her presents and the only picture I got of her while she was looking at me:

And Tyson:

And Cameron (I love his dimples! Which, you can't really see in this picture, but he's still adorable!): And Kaylee:

After Aimee opened her presents, Trent was playing that "Airplane Game" with Kaylee (Look, Ma! No Hands!), which she thinks is hilarious:
Anyway, it was a fun time, and I was glad to spend some time with the kids.

Happy Birthday, Aimee!

As Promised . . .

Mike informed me that Bret Farve and Roger Clemens did the exact same thing; both claimed they were going to retire, but then switched to opposing teams for more money (which I knew, but apparently it didn't come off that way in my last post). But Roger did it first (the traitor), so I'd still call it "Pulling a Clemens."

Anyway, last Saturday was the Utes game against Air Force and the first time we've tailgated this year. It's been hard, because Mike has his new job, so he can't tailgate with us anymore. It's really strange for me to be doing something like that without him. I wish he had been there.

Oh, well.

So, Ryan had to step in as Grill Master for Mike. His burgers were . . . eh. (They were really excellent, actually, but I have to be true to my husband and his burgers; the Lord says so. Don't tell Mike I burger-cheated on him.)

Our little tailgating group was low on numbers that day, but we still had a good time. Jill & Durrant brought their son, Asher.

Sarah's right: you've got to start them young! So, you're on your way to an outdoor football and the weather says 60% chance of rain. What do you make sure you do? Dress warm for one. Duh.

Yes, I forgot my sweatshirt. I could have sworn I put it in the car! At least I remembered the camera!

So, we stopped by the bookstore before the game (and missed the Air Force flyover in the process, oh well) because of my stupidity (and Durrant's 40% off coupon). But I bought this black sweatshirt (this Saturday's game is the Black-Out Game, so doubly functional, SCORE!):

So, kick off. And then it begins to rain. And rain and rain and rain and rain and rain. (Okay, okay, it only really came down the 1st quarter, but it felt longer than that. But my new sweatshirt kept me just warm enough and it has a hood, so my hair was saved.)

But Sarah looked like this:

Only she could wear a poncho and still look beautiful! I must admit that we were slightly worried that they were going to get killed because their ponchos were Air Force blue.

Swoop came by at one point during the game and poised for my camera (stupid delay on the camera, he turned his head at the last second and so he's looking the other way)!

Our nephews, Justin and David, have become my escorts for the games. David graduated last year and Justin is a sophmore this year. And both are football players (of course). Maybe one day we'll see them in red and white!

So, the game. The Utes scored a touchdown in the 1st quarter, but missed the extra point (which would have come in handy later on). So, when the game was over, the score was 16 to 16. Okay, not over, because we went into overtime. (Yes, we were sorry we missed that extra point then!) This is the first time I'd ever been to a game where it went into OT. In college football, each team is given the chance to make a drive (or something like that; I'm sure Mike will correct me, if he ever gets around to reading this); and, luckily, we scored on our first drive (and scored the extra point), so the score was 23-16 when Air Force took their turn. Our defense didn't quit fighting and we were able to hold them back! Mike says that we had absolutely no business winning that game (not being an expert like he is, I wouldn't know), and we were lucky that we got the win at all.
Now, for all you BYU fans out there: HA, HA, HA, HA (That was me, laughing my ass off!)
Let's just say that this is extremely true: (Thanks, Sar, I stole this from you!)

TCU kicked their trash! 38-7! (I'm sure we'll get just as bad a beating when we play them in a few weeks, but in the meantime: HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!!!)

Sorry for my lack of prudence and civility there.

Next game is on Halloween against Wyoming. Spooky. I really wanted to dress-up, but Mike vetoed my idea to go as BYU fans (it is Halloween, after all). But understandably so, since it's the Black-Out Game, and we would stick out like sore thumbs if we wore blue.

GO UTES!

Go Yanks!

We're going to the World Series!

Yes, for the first time since 2003, my beloved Yankees have made it into the World Series.

I know it's hard for the 6 people who reads this blog to believe that we follow any sport other than football (and especially University of Utah football), but we do. Although some might protest that baseball shouldn't be the sport for me (baseball is 5% action and 95% patience), I still love it. Plus, it's also the only time I know that I could get Mike to wear blue (I know, you'd think that with such a die-hard Ute fan as a husband I would be shunned forever for rooting for a team whose colors are blue and white, but I'll slit my wrists before I root for a certain baseball team whose colors are red and white (Boston, BLECH!). I figure, different sports, different genres; that's why it works for us.)

So, the Yankees beat out the Angels in game 6 of the ALCS (that's American League Championship Series for those who don't speak baseball) last night, 5-2. Since we had family obligations (Happy Birthday, Aimee!) and such, we listened to some of the 2nd inning driving from Cedar Hills to West-West-West Jordan, until we got too West and then the radio stopped working (yes, Mike's sister lives WAY out there); and then heard the 6th and 7th innings once we were East enough to have a signal again.

The win all came down to one thing:
The magic that is Mariano Rivera.
Rivera had his first 6-out save since July of 2006 last night. Mo really saved us and still claims the title of Best Closer in my book.

And then there was A-Rod. The man who pulled our butts out of several sticky situations the entire series. (Mike loves A-Rod, and apparently, so does Kate Hudson, who was at the game last night.) I'm an A-Rod fan too, but he will never rise above Derek in my heart. Derek Jeter is the glue that holds my Yankees together. But, I'm starting worry, since this was his 15th season with the Yankees, that maybe we only have 15 or so more seasons left. (Maybe he'll pull a Bret Farve and never retire. I just hope he doesn't pull a Roger Clemens and say he's retiring and then goes and plays for the Houston Rockets, of all teams. He should hang his head for that. It's always all about money, isn't it? Whatever happened to playing for the love of the game?)

But I digress . . .

I'm extremely thrilled that we won it in 6 games; although I'm sure there are ad executives who aren't happy about that. At least we didn't get SWEPT like a certain team I know. That's right, SWEPT.

Suck on that Red Sox fans!

The World Series starts on Wednesday night against the (I can't believe I'm saying this) the World Champions, the Philadelphia Phillies. (I'm still in shock that they won the World Series last year. The Phillies?! Words like "How?" and "Why?" and "Quick Bob, get the kids and put them in the minivan because the world is obviously coming to an end!" escaped many peoples lips last year when they won. Including mine. The Phillies?!)

Come on, Boys! Let's win it in 4! (Or perhaps 5? I'll take 6 or even 7 games; just as long as we win!)

In other news:
The Utes beat the Air Force Falcons in overtime 23-16 on Saturday.
But who cares about that?!

Go YANKS!

(Okay, okay, to avoid being forced to sleep on the couch tonight, pictures and details of the Utes game will be posted in the very near future.)

Vegas, Football & 23¢

This past weekend has made me realize one thing:

I hate being in the car.
And Las Vegas is very far away when you're driving there one morning and coming back the next day.

So, I guess I realized two things.

But, at least we got to stop and see Molly & Christian in St. George along the way.

Molly practically grew up with my family (she even came on family vacations with us), so when Mike and I were looking for our first place to live, Molly & Christian let us live across the hall from them. And we loved it! Until Christian got into graduate school. In Kansas. But, after he graduated, he got a job teaching in St. George, where they have been for a whole month now. He's actually a Professor! Can you believe that? Yes, we give him a hard time and call him "Professor Edwards," which he hates.

Professor Edwards.
Hilarious.

Then it was on to Vegas. Mike reserved us a room in a very nice hotel, but our room wasn't ready when it was supposed to be.

So, we're in Vegas, with nothing to do for an hour and a half. What would you do?

Gamble!

We did some major gambling. Huge. The Everest of all gambling. Those penny slots never knew what hit them. The anticipation as Mike inserted a crisp $1 bill and pushed the red glowing button. As the reels began to spin, my heart quit beating and I quit breathing. The anxiety of waiting to know the outcome of his spin. Would we lose it all? Or could we possibly win?

23¢

Yes, we lost. 77¢. And did you know that if you cash out with an odd-number you can't re-insert it into a machine? We found that one out the hard way, so it was either go to the cashier and collect our 23¢ (and be completely humilated by our wanting to get back 23¢) or keep the cashout slip. Hence, our one souvenir from our trip.

Then we went to the game.

And met up with Mike's brother, Tom, and his girlfriend, Stephanie, and the Steed's.

I'd like to give you a play-by-play of the game, but I know I'd do a horrible job and Mike would just have to correct me, so I'll spare you that little tid-bit. But I do know that UNLV tried to get a 2 point conversion at one point instead of kicking for the extra point. No such luck. We stopped them cold!

I must mention that I do feel sort of sorry for the UNLV cheerleaders. I mean, even if their outfits weren't sparkly and their choreography wasn't full of butt slaps and hair whipping, they'd still have the stigma that they're going to be strippers when they grow up, just because they cheer at the University of Las Vegas. But I guess it's their own fault too, or they would have picked a different school to go to.

But, I divert. Yes, the Utes beat UNLV. 35-15. Go Utes.

Here's a cute picture of Tom (Jessie snuck in there) and Stephanie. The first time we met Stephanie was at the UNLV game two years ago. Makes me wonder when Tom's going to man-up and marry her.

After the game, we went to Margaritaville with Tom and Stephanie. It was loud, but the band was pretty good.

This is what we ate:

The biggest plate of nachos I had ever seen. Yum.

After we inhaled the nachos, we decided to walk over to the Bellagio and enjoy the fountain for a while. As you can see, the fountain quits going off at midnight. And it was 1:00 in the morning. At least we didn't wait too long (thank heavens for the iphone or we would have been there all night).

The next day, Mike and I just got up and came home. So exciting. But at least Mike didn't get pulled over on this trip. That was my biggest worry. We did almost get into an accident going into the canyon because of some idiot in a blue car who wasn't paying attention, but luckily we made it home safe.

To a very angry cat.

Since we were only going to be gone one night, we left her at our house and asked my sister if she could look in on her Saturday night, but then Jenn came down with the swine flu and couldn't drive (she's okay now) so, Cat was all alone. When we came into the house, she wouldn't even look at us.

Such a diva.

Statement Redacted

Dear Self from 2 Days Ago Who Claimed Your Husband Wasn't Romantic:

Take it back.
You're an idiot.
You're incredibly lucky to have someone like him want to be with you.
Yes, he is the pretty one in your relationship, but come on! His eyelashes go on for days! Who could beat that?!

Signed,
Wiser Self from Today Whose Husband Booked a Really Romantic Hotel for Your Vegas Trip

Utes Rally to Beat the Rams and Zombieland

I swear Mike has a secret wish. It's to lose all his toes to frostbite. Luckily, his wish didn't come true this past weekend, because I refused to go to Colorado State for the football game. Yes, Colorado, where it was 25 degrees at kickoff and the snow came down in big, fat flakes. No, thank you.

But luckily, the Utes didn't let the temperature get the best of them (although we were quite worried for a while there; they didn't look too good during the 1st half), and we beat the Rams 24-17. It was a close game, and one where I constantly worried that Mike was going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the night.

And then I have Ryan to thank for my lack of sleep for the past few nights.

After the game, Mike and I decided to go see a movie. And since Ryan has done nothing but praise Zombieland for the past week, we decided to go see it and invite Sarah and Ryan to come with us. Sarah, being so much smarter than me, opted out and just sent Ryan.

Yes, it was funny. Don't get me wrong. Bill Murray portraying a Zombie can be nothing but funny. But I have this annoying habit of letting things stick in my head and watching Zombies with blood dripping off their mouths running after people has stuck with me. It was so distrubing to me that I started to get a massive headache about halfway through the movie. And it stayed for 2 days.

I told my boss at work that we went to see Zombieland over the weekend and her only comment was that I must really love Mike. Yes, I do, but he SO owes me. And I'm thinking . . . New Moon. Okay, okay, I won't be that mean, but there's definitely a girly movie in his future.

In other exciting news:
Our friend, Ed, finally man-ed up and popped the question to Jen. He took her on a surprise trip to Disneyland where he asked her to marry him in front of the castle. Lucky girl. And so sweet of him to propose in her favorite place on earth. It was definitely an "AWWWW" moment.

But Mike does romantic things for me too. Like . . . remember . . . well, he . . . there was the time . . . (give me a minute, I'm THINKING) . . . Hmmm . . . Oh, wait! The time when he bought me my jersey to wear to the games! That was nice and romantic of him! I knew there was something!

Anyway, we're off to Vegas on Saturday morning for (what else) the Utah v. Vegas football game.

GO UTES!