Simply the Best Time of Year

I adore autumn. It is the best time of year, and now it is knocking on the door. Summer is fiercely holding on, with its last gasp of heat...but it just can't stay much longer.

Soon, the air will get crisp. The leaves will explode in an array of beautifully magnificent colors. There will be a crunch at my feet and something special in the air. It is the time of bouquets of sharpened pencils, brand new sneakers, fall sports, and college football. 

I love the coziness of the hearth when it starts to get colder.  I feel like baking and sewing. I turn on the baseball games to watch the playoffs and all of the wackiness that happens. Sometimes, we even go to a game and it is a blast.  I remember when we first moved into our house in Las Vegas and I was busy baking something while I watched the Red Sox make their miraculous comeback against the Yankees in the 9th inning and then winning the entire series. Good times.

But this doesn't even compare to college football.  Since Rinar and I are both graduates of the University of Utah, we just love watching their games. We are not fanatics or anything, but we still enjoy going to a few and watching what we can on television. It is just one of those awesome American experiences, that you can only really truly experience in autumn.

So tomorrow school officially starts for the public school world.  Even though I won't be putting my kids on a bus or have them wearing a new backpack, I am still excited for this new time of year.

Welcome autumn. Have a seat. Rock a while.

The Funny Part is at the End of the Post

Unfortunately, this post will not be accompanied by any pictures, but I would like to share with you anyways. We had friends over for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. That is always a lot of fun and then we headed to St. George in the evening.  Friday is Rinar's family Thanksgiving dinner. We surrendered Thursday to spouses' families and it seems to work out really well.  During dinner Rinar presented me with an envelope and in it was a stack of papers with pictures to give me clues to a big surprise he had for me.



He took me to Salt Lake City. And he told me we were leaving in 15 minutes. All of his siblings took the kids for us, plus my good friend Debbie from Atlanta. Then we hit the road. He had rented an SUV for the trip because the roads were treacherous.

And why did he take me there? That's right...to see Utah play their big rivalry game against BYU. We stayed at Jared's hotel, had dinner with my brother and his fiance Leah, and then went to the game the next day. Let me tell you it was cold and I was miserable. Not because of the weather, but because Utah was playing terribly! Ach! Then they came alive in the last quarter and we ended up winning by one point, because we blocked a field goal in the last seconds of the game.

It was GLORIOUS!!!!


We then went to an art exhibit at BYU (ironically) with our old friends from Salt Lake, Brian and Kristen. I had actually seen him at the game and we set it up when we were there. It was an exhibit on Carl Bloch and it was very moving. We got burgers and fries afterward.

The trip was a big success and even though there was a pretty significant snowstorm on the trip home, we were only delayed by about an hour.

***

Now I am back to the grind. In other words, we did a lot of schoolwork today and on a completely unrelated topic to that, I did a lot of yelling today as well.

Eli joined in on the screamfest and I finally banished him to his room for a nap. He told me emphatically, “Eli no nap!” but I was not convinced. I checked on him about 90 minutes later and sure enough he was asleep...sitting on the toilet...half naked...slumped down to the side frozen like a statue. Even when I moved him, he never cracked an eyelid. Mommy knows best.

Our Fun Weekend

Rinar took the boys to the Utah/UNLV game. After 5 minutes of the game Zach wanted to go home. Why, you may ask? It was too loud! They did get an autograph with Swoop, though. Raef had lots of fun. He cheered and made sure to get Dad to buy lots of treats.


Rinar has been working on his beard for two weeks. Nice, huh?

It was all cut off before he left for Albuquerque tonight.


Taking nap together, cheek to cheek.

And she just sleeps on...
Heather and the twins.
With all the kids. You have to be fast taking a picture when you include a one year-old.
After her bath, Julia looked like a little princess.

Sugar Bowl is Sweet!

We just got back last night from a wonderful jaunt to the deep South. And it was great! We were decked out in all of our Utah gear, to cheer on our college football team as they were matched up with SEC powerhouse Alabama for the Sugar Bowl. It is a prestigious bowl game, and Utah got the invite because they executed a perfect season. It doesn't happen very often, so we had to make the trip. The game did not start until 7:15 pm on Friday, January 2nd. We flew in the night before and therefore had all day to do some sightseeing.

This is Dr. Ludlow and his son-in-law Mark. We met up with them the night we got into town. Mark was in our married-student ward in Salt Lake and is wife and I are friends as well. I even worked for her Dad, a dentist in town, for a little while. It was great to be able to spend a few hours with them.This is Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. St. Louis Cathedral is in the background.

The building to the left of the cathedral is where they signed the Louisiana Purchase. Rinar is standing in the room where it happened, leaning on a replica chair.

I think America got a really good bargain from the French for the Louisian Purchase, or it would appear so from my calculations. We American's know how to drive a hard bargain, huh? Good ole Jefferson and Seward.

After a lot of walking (and I mean a lot), we finally made it over to the Superdome. We had walked down Bourbon street about 4 times (because we kept getting lost) and it was about four times too many. We also caught a cable car to see the old houses, and it was way too crowded to do that, as I think every other Utah and Alabama fan did the same thing as us. I felt bad for the locals who actually had somewhere they needed to go. Nevertheless, we made it to our ultimate destination...

There was a Fan Jam before the game and we putzed around while we waited for the stadium to open. Here I am in a picture with Jamal Anderson, a Utah alum and NFL stand-out for the Atlanta Falcons. He autographed a picture for me and if you want to see it and touch it in person, call me to make an appointment.

We always get one of these pictures when we are at a big game.

Do you like my feathers? They are white and red, of course.

Look how big Alabama's band was? Our band was about 70% smaller. We looked like a high school band. I hope we didn't sound like a high school band. They played with their backs to us so I didn't have a clue what it was coming out of those horns.

Now for a rant...

The SEC is the epitome of football snobbery. These people think they are the only people in the world who can play football. They strut around in their fan gear, with the pins, and the hats, and the traditions constantly making snide remarks like, "What's a Ute anyways?" I would always yell back, "It's an Indian!" They didn't ask because they wanted to know, they just wanted to make sure to remind all of us Utes that we didn't belong on the holy BCS bowl ground. The ESPN polls before the game had Alabama favored 89% and the odds in Vegas were 10-1 against Utah. But more importantly, it is the expectation that in order for us piddly little school to enter the Mastah's house and grovel at his lousy feet, we have to be absolutely perfect. And even when we do accomplish perfection, it is still not enough. Forget the fact that one of the worst teams in our league, Wyoming, absolutley whalloped mighty Tennessee ... at Tennessee.

Yet, the Mountain West Conference is relegated to the slave quarters and can only hope to get the scraps from the BCS table. It makes me want to yack.

Utah has the longest winning streak in the country, in a conference that annihilated the PAC-10, and has not lost a bowl game in 8 tries. Yet, everytime we go to a bowl, we have the burden of proving ourselves to the sports world. It is ridiculous.

I officially declare that Utah no longer has anything to prove to anybody...

And this is why...


That's right. And all those Alabama die-hards started leaving the stadium in droves even before it was locked up. They still had time and chances to win the game, and yet the Alabama "faithful" didn't stick it out with their team. It was a sorry state of affairs. No matter what, I would have stayed with my team to the end.

But, that is all hypothetical. Utah was awesome...they dominated a team that was ranked #1 in the country all season long until the very last game. I firmly believe that Utah should be the #1 team in the nation. The Utes were unstoppable.

I just loved this sign.

As we made our way back to the Bourbon street area, once again I heard some Alabama person shout out, "What's a Ute anyway?". Lady, the answer is, "It is an undefeated indian!".

**Rant officially over**

So, yesterday we flew home and had to lay-over in Houston. Look who rode home on the plane with us...



Yes, it was Brian Johnson, MVP quarterback for the 2009 Sugar Bowl Champion Utah Utes.

Don't you love all of my chins?

Victory...Nuff Said

After a leisurely morning, I fed my baby, checked my email, and then put on my running shoes to get a nice run in while the weather was so nice. I opened my front door and this is what I saw.

It was like peeling an onion. Everytime I turned around there was another one.

And another one... And another one... And you guessed it...

Rinar decided to redecorate so he added a UTAH to the front door and Cuba to the sign "Brigham for President of Cuba" and various other things. He also parked the black car in the garage and put our beautiful red tahoe in the driveway instead.

Later in the day, we watched the game with our friends. They are all BYU fans: Jared and Melanie, Stan and Amy, Dwan and Elizabeth, and Dennis H. It was a lot of fun. Mainly because Rinar and I could watch all of their sorry faces and sorry excuses as Utah walloped them. YEEHAW! Victory is the sweetest revenge of all...baby.

Poor Jared, amazed at the quick, unfumbling moves of Brian Johnson, stellar kicking of Louie Sakoda, and in-your-face defense of Utah's front line.

And this is Jared later in the game.

And here is our head-decorator Melanie. She is my good luck charm, now.

A room full of losers, minus Rinar and Eli, of course.

Final score...

BYU 24 - UTAH 48

We are going to the BCS. I hope it is the Fiesta Bowl.