They Were Indian Outlaws - Half Cherokee and Choctaw (er, Seminole)

September 17-19, 2010.

Anytime BYU plays a sporting event within striking distance of Houston, there's a good chance I'll be there. Last September, I drove the 1,500 mile round trip to Tallahassee, FL to watch them play (or attempt to play) the Florida State Seminoles in football. (As a bonus, I got to drive through Chattahoochee, FL...where, I hear, it gets hotter than a....). I was also able to arrive in time Friday evening to attend the team's fireside (a tradition of Bronco's whenever they play a road game), which was really cool. It was there that I learned from the locals that you must always, always refer to the FSU colors as GARNET and gold - a lesson that was reiterated multiple times during our visit in Tallahassee.

My brother, Stan, and two of his kids (Colin and Jack) couldn't leave Houston until later, so they drove through the night and arrived just in time to wake me up in the morning and crash in my hotel room. After Stan caught a couple of zzz's, we headed over near campus to meet up for lunch with Cheri (my brother James' sister-in-law), her son Cody and her dad Roger who were all in town for Cody's campus visit and the football game. (Cheri posted those pics on Facebook, so I won't re-post here.)

Then came the football game. That blasted football game. The Cougs battled and scored 10 late points in the first half to close the gap to 13-10 heading into the break. Unfortunately, they didn't come out for the second half. Final score: 34-10. After another loss at TCU in October, BYU is now 0-5 in road games that I've been to. I'm starting to take it personally.

I'll think twice about going to another early season outdoor game in the hot, humid south. It was sweltering in Tallahassee! Well, ok, I'll think twice AFTER I go see the Cougs play Ole Miss in Oxford on Sept 3 and UT in Austin on Sept 10 this fall.

Here come the men in white.

The grand entrance of Chief Osceola and his horse, Renegade.

Just seconds before Jake Heaps threw a 4-yard TD pass to Cody Hoffman 14 seconds before halftime to make it 13-10 FSU....the peak of our excitement for the day.

Me and two of my stud nephews, Colin and Jack, staying in the shade during halftime. Dang, it was hot that day.

I'm pretty sure those were our hopes for a good season that were burning on the end of the statue in front of Doak Campbell Stadium after the game.

After the shelacking in Tallahassee, we wimpered over to stay the night with our Aunt Lynette, where we got to visit with her and some of our long, lost cousins (one of which, apparently, goes by "Booger.")

Very odd Ripley's Believe It or Not building in Florida. Had to do a double take.

Playing on the beautiful beach near Panama City (where my aunt lives).



New Beginnings

Monday, August 23, 2010. Now that we're within a week of Spring Break, I guess I should post the pics from the first day of school. That's what social media is all about...real-time information. From 6+ months ago.

My little Curious George standing by his bin at his new pre-k/daycare.

Nutty excited for his first day of the school year.

Beeju armed and ready to nail first grade! 

Sitting at his new desk. I love seeing his bottled up excitement and apprehension on the first day of school. So dang cute.

I've gotten to be pretty good at taking these one-handed self-shots. What I haven't yet figured out is how to photoshop out the glare from my sexy melon.

Hoop, There It Is

Monday, July 26, 2010. If you ranked the things that the boys and I have spent the most free time on since last summer, at or near the top of that list would be our indoor ESPN SportsCenter. A friend from church called me one day and said that they had been cleaning out their garage and wondered if I wanted a sports set that was still in the unopened box that had been in their garage for years. Without more details than that, I skeptically said "sure." And thank goodness I did. Because that thing rocks the universe. We love it! It has provided hours and hours of entertainment and exercise - especially on those ridiculously hot Texas days (and during that horrendous Houston blizzard of 2011...). Thanks a bagillion to our friends for their generosity!

Peanut draining one. Back in July, they used to shoot from this normal distance. Now, they like to step back a ways and jack up the long ball "like Jimmer." So heads up if you're ever in a neighboring room. Or zip code.

Beeju bringing the heater. He's got some velocity and movement. And that's after only 3 months of getting regular "Roger Clemens" shots. And maybe a few rubdowns of "the cream" and "the clear."

Here's a wider angle view so you can see the full capabilities. When the black sleeve is down (like in these pics), you can play basketball, baseball and football. When you fold the sleeve down, you can play soccer, golf and hockey. There are dozens of options for different competitions, and it's all narrated by Stuart Scott (from the TV version of ESPN's SportsCenter). I still can't believe we own this bad boy.

Una Fiesta in South Padre

November 26-27, 2010. Part of our 50-50 joint custody arrangement with the boys deals with us rotating certain holidays - one of which is Thanksgiving. So this past November, Amy got the boys that weekend. Because of that, I decided to head down to the South Padre Island Invitational to watch the BYU men's basketball team in a Friday-Saturday tournament. [For you non-Texans, South Padre Island is a popular Spring Break/winter home/beach resort town at the very southern tip of Texas.]

The tourney was extra fun to attend because (1) the gym (the South Padre Island Convention Center) was very intimate - probably smaller than my high school gym even and (2) BYU fans far outnumbered any of the other teams playing. The primary teams this year were BYU, St. Mary's, Texas Tech and South Florida. We got treated to two days of fantastic basketball (and one afternoon of nightmarish football when BYU blew their game against Utah...which we were watching in one of the restaurants down there on Friday in between games...but I digress). The Cougs won the tournament by defeating South Florida 77-75 in double overtime (on a last second shot by Noah Hartsock!) and St. Mary's 74-73 (thanks to a 3-pointer by Jimmer with 11 seconds left!). I was apparently caught on TV during my exuberance singing the fight song at the end of the championship game - a less than flattering moment caught by my friends, the Elliotts, which they then felt compelled to share on Facebook. (And which their son still laughs about when he sees me.)

Just a couple of pics from day 2 of the tourney...

This shows how close to the action I was in my front row seat (which I rarely sat down in). Which means I technically didn't have to yell that loud. But let's be clear...I did anyway.

Post-tournament award ceremony. Hartsock, Jax and Jimmer were all-tourney, and Jimmer was the MVP.

Me with the MVP (and soon-to-be National Player of the Year?!?) Jimmer Fredette.

Talk About Scary

Halloween 2010. It was brought to my attention yesterday that a couple of friends who I hadn't seen since the mid-90's had stumbled onto my blog and been reading it. Which made me realize: shoot, if someone's actually reading this thing, I should get going and update it. So I'm going to try to crank out a series of posts from the last 6 months or so. Just highlights at this point. And in no chronological order.

It's hard to be a scary lion when you laugh and smile constantly. But that's why I love Peanut so much. It's almost impossible to keep him from grinning.

Beeju as Dracula. I couldn't find kid-sized vampire teeth, so he tried to mash in the adult ones. That was a hard costume for me. Next year, I'll do better. He was happy though, and that's what matters.

I never dress up for Halloween. And now you know why. But hey, the humor was at someone else's expense, so it wasn't all that painful. And let's be honest, it was dead on for James (one of my older brothers). In fact, someone who knows both of us saw me at our church Halloween party and (without seeing/reading my sign) made a comment about how I looked like the old pictures of James that she had seen. I rest my case. My only regret...posting this pic on Facebook. Really Ben? Really? I embarrass myself sometimes.

When Wobbles Turn Into Holes

Sunday, September 12, 2010.  For weeks and weeks, Noah had a couple of loose teeth.  The initial wobbles gradually morphed into bends which slowly became twists and turns.  By the end, those darn teeth were doing moves that would make Olympic gymnasts jealous.  Finally, during the wee hours of Sunday morning, while Beeju and his wobbly teeth slept soundly, tooth #1 bit the dust.  When he first woke up, he didn't even notice.  Watching his stunned reaction when it finally hit him was priceless.  So we went into his room and searched through his sheets until we found the missing mouth jewelry.

That boy couldn't stop smiling all day long.  And when the Tooth Fairy came the next night, it was like Christmas morning here.  So much fun for Pops!

Since that time, tooth #2 has also fallen out - this time at Chick-fil-a.  Here's to lots and lots of toothless grins for years to come!

Wobble, Wobble...

...Bend....Twist....Turn....

The proud owner of a hole in his mouth.

Sunny Side Up, Please

Wednesday, September 8, 2010.  The first graders at Noah's school started their year by putting on a Nursery Rhyme Parade.  They each had to dress up as a character from the Nursery Rhyme of their choice.  Because of Noah's affinity for a certain song he learned at the end of kindergarten, he naturally went for Humpty Dumpty (I tried to post the cute video of him and his class singing it, but the file was too big, and I don't know how to edit it down).  It wasn't easy executing on the Mr. Egg idea, but we had a great time working on it together.

We basically just took a big box, cut off the top and bottom, rounded the top and bottom to make an egg shape, drew a face, gave him some striped shorts and then added a brick wall at the bottom.  Although, it dawned on both of us the morning after that it looked more like an egg sitting inside the top of a chimney than an egg on a wall.  Details, details.  I also maybe should've put on suspender-like straps so that he could wear it on his shoulders instead of making arm holes for him to carry it.  But it all worked out in the end.  And I think my little Round Mound of Rebound thoroughly enjoyed being the best dang Humpty Dumpty that school had ever seen.

Smiling Dumpty

Monster Dumpty

Oh-No-I'm-Falling-Off-The-Wall Dumpty

Beaming Dumpty (in the parade)