Competition Day-BYU

Last night Matthew’s marching band competition was held at BYU. He has been an avid BYU fan for years, so the opportunity to play and march on the Cougar’s homefield was super exciting for him. Unfortunately, it was not a great performance, and he came home disappointed in how they did. However, that did not dim his enthusiasm for the fact that he had played in the stadium!

Tuesdays are young men activity nights and since this particular competition happened to fall on a Tuesday evening, Matthew suggested to his leaders that they attend the competition for this week’s activity. They decided to do so, and I was so glad! It was a sign to Matthew that what he does matters and that they are supportive of him. Over the past many years, the young men activities have been heavily focused on sports (mostly basketball) and outdoor recreation like hiking and camping. None of those things are particularly interesting to Matthew and he (and Nathan before him) has long bemoaned the fact that there has been no variety in their activities. We have some new leaders right now though, and I think it has been good. And as I said before, I’m so glad they decided to drive down to see Matthew march. Even though this particular performance was not great, Matthew was so pleased by their attendance.

Home and Away

With both Daniel and Nathan attending USU and Kevin and Matthew attending most home BYU football games, when BYU played USU in Logan last Saturday night, it seemed like a good time for Kev and Matthew to take a little road trip. With my dad along for the ride and the game, they drove up in time for dinner with Nathan. The marching band played at halftime so not only did they get to see the game, they had the opportunity to see Daniel march. With friends and roommates joining him in the student section, even Nathan has been enjoying football season

  

As for Malia and I, we were the only two who had a decent night's sleep. All my boys are pretty tired today, but they had a good time so in their opinions, it was worth it.

 

And the Fun Continues

Matthew built his Lego yesterday and today he put together a wooden lock box. There are other builds still underway as well, Nathan’s piano in particular. That one is going to take him a while to complete. Matthew also got his bed made with his new BYU blanket and as you can tell by his pillowcase, he’s happy about it. 😁

 

 

Kick Off!

Matthew has been counting down. To what, you may ask? Football season, of course! In particular, BYU football season. He’s always excited, but this year he seemed even a bit more excited than usual. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that BYU’s first game of the season is a home game against the U of U. And the fact that Kevin pitched in with my dad for season tickets which means Matthew would be in the stadium for the game. For the past few weeks, he’s been giving us the countdown down to the minute. And as the clock counted down to kickoff, he was texting the seconds right along with them.

Daniel has learned how football works and as such, enjoys it more than he used to. When he had an opportunity to go with Kevin and Matthew, he decided he would join the party, although I suspect he was more excited to see the marching band than the actual game. Nevertheless, three of my guys are sitting in the stadium and Nathan is watching the game at a friend’s house surrounded by his new Madrigal friends.

As for me, I’m going to bed. Kickoff was at 8:15. They won’t be home until the wee hours. I hope they have fun, but I’m looking forward to a full night’s sleep. 😉

Slam Dunk!

Matthew has really taken to this whole guest blogger gig. He went to another basketball game last night and the first thing he asked when he got home was if he could blog about it. I'm happy to oblige. :-) So once again, here's Matthew:

On Saturday we went to a basketball game and it was BYU going agenst San Diegeo. At the end of the first half Malia was SO bored. At half time even I got bored. In the first half San Diegeo only scored 12 points. At the end of the game, the final score was 91 to 33. At the end we got to meet Cosmo at the “Y” bell. We got a picture with Cosmo. I got three high fives! :-)

Touchdown!

For his experience gift last Christmas, we gave Matthew a trip to a BYU basketball game and another to a BYU football game. His basketball game was earlier this year, but football had to wait until the fall. Over the summer we came across a flyer for the Cosmo Club which gives kids a t-shirt, 4 football tickets and 8 basketball tickets (meant to be used for multiple games for the child and a guardian), free entrance to other BYU sports games when they wear their t-shirt and other special events all for $50. It was a great deal so we opted to do that rather than just a single football game.

Yesterday was Matthew’s first ever BYU football game. The Cosmo Club kids were invited to be on the field a couple of hours before the game where they met Cosmo, tossed a football around and basically had a great time.

He didn’t even care that their seats probably should have included an oxygen mask or that the Cougars won by so much that it wasn’t actually a terribly exciting game. He was just thrilled to be there!

After the game the kids got to ring the victory bell and rub shoulders with several of the players.

Matthew has been excited all week and yesterday was definitely a winner! (So here's a little confession: I may not be all that into sports, but it is nice to have a kid who cheers for my alma mater!)

Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out!

As I’ve mentioned before, Matthew is our little sports nut and one of his favorites to cheer for is BYU. Although I really don’t care about the sports, I do have a decent amount of school spirit for my alma mater, so I think it is fun that he’s a fan of the Y. My dad is also a BYU alum and he has always held season tickets to basketball and football. Of all my siblings, the only one who really enjoys cheering the athletes of BYU is my sister, Esther. And she didn’t really get to that point until college. So I think having a youngster to enjoy sporting events with is kind of fun for my dad as well as for Kevin.

BYU’s fall athletic season has just gotten underway and last night they had the annual Cougar Kickoff to give fans a chance to mingle with the players and pick up last season’s gear at a discounted price. My dad invited Matthew to go with him and he was soooooo excited! He did two days’ worth of homework and reading on Monday so he wouldn’t have to do any yesterday and when I picked him up from school he made it to the car in record time. As a member of the Cougar Club, my dad was able to get in earlier than the general public (although the lines were enormously long anyway) and Matthew had a great time. He got a poster signed by the BYU football team’s head coach, played some soccer, and came home with an armload of BYU gear.

Pretty much the only bad thing that happened was Matthew getting hit in the face with a soccer ball. But even that wasn’t too bad. Matthew just decided that he would be Scott Sterling for Halloween.

(looking a little red in the face after getting smacked by a soccer ball)

While Matthew was getting a dose of Cougar Spirit, Daniel was off to a ham radio meeting with Kev’s dad. That left us with just Nathan and Malia so we decided to go out to dinner. We ate at Red Robin and just happened to be seated next to a cousin of mine of that I haven’t seen in years. When we were finished eating, our server informed us that my cousin had covered our bill. How cool is that?!

My family is great. Two grandfathers took two grandsons to two events that they all enjoyed. And the rest of us had a fine meal paid for by another relative. It was a good evening for us all.:-)

Slam Dunk!

The very first of the experiences the boys got for Christmas was last night. Kevin took Matthew to a BYU basketball game. with a trip to the bookstore and dinner in the food court at the Wilk to get things started, it was a full evening. Matthew was one happy kid.

What Color Do You Bleed?

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old,
he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

(Auntie Esther bought Matthew this shirt before he was even born. He's finally big enough to wear it!)