The Day our Cougars Visited Tennessee

 

When we heard that BYU would play Middle Tennessee this year we told the boys that we would go to that game and looked forward to it all year!

 

 It was such a thrill to cheer on our team in real life again!

I got up early on Saturday and made lots of yummy food for tailgating with some friends before hand

I brought Ham and Cheese Sliders, 7 Layer Dip and Texas Sheet Cake--but my favorite was what my friend Nora brought--Guatemalan Hot Dogs.  They were incredible!  I will be posting the recipe soon!

 

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out:)

It was pretty cold--but so worth it especially when

 our Cougars WON!! 

 

Connor says this cheerleader "really wanted a picture with him and he was totally OK with it."

What a guy! 

 

I need to download all of the boys pictures--they got pictures with so many players!

Let me tell you, the BYU football players are incredibly NICE!

Coleman got a selfie with the quarterback Christian Stewart and he gave him his towel.  Exciting:)

 Cannon getting the Rise Tshirt he got signed--

it was so big on him it reached his shoes!

 Jamaal Williams--

 

 

 

The boys were in HEAVEN!!

Although in the last 2 pictures Cannon was a bit sad because someone referred to his big HUGE  Rise Y Tshirt as a dress.  He was seriously humiliated for a few minutes! Poor little guy!

 

All in all it was an INCREDIBLE day!

WE love our Cougars!

A series of Unfortunate Events

This week we had some strangely familiar troubles and heartbreaks come our way..

 Starting off with Connor breaking his thumb on the growth plate, in the same spot as he did 5 years ago.  Remember his season ending football injury here.  We see a hand specialist this week and are hoping it won't affect his upcoming wrestling season!

Next up, the most anticipated football games of the season. 

 First our high school team played our BIGGEST rival on Friday night.  Our school is only 4 years old and we have never beat this team.  This year we went into the game, undefeated and projected to win. The boys were so excited--our whole family was decked out in school colors and some of us even went a little crazy with hair color and markers (they got into the Halloween stuff--silly boys).  It was a nail biter, down to the line but in the end... we LOST by 2 points!

  Heart breaker!!

 At least the cheerleaders were darling!

 Then bright and early Coleman was preparing for the BIG BYU vs Utah game.  He was all decked out about 12 hours before the game started!

He even decorated the house:)

Don't you love the hashtag--everytime I see that it makes me laugh!

I love this boy--11 going on 16-:)

The game didn't start until 10:30pm our time, so it was  LONG wait!  It is hard to be a BYU fan living on the East coast.  I have tried to get them to pick a SEC team to cheer for, but they can't --they are true blue loyal Cougar fans.  

Brad and I went to a movie Saturday evening and I think Coleman called us 13 times with updates on he preparations for the big game.  He was so excited!

He had prepared bowls of candy , popcorn, drinks, blankets and pillows for the family in our upstairs media room.  Poor little Cannon was out minutes after kickoff.

I worked on getting photo albums caught up.  (I will post about that soon)

This game was another HUGE disappointment.

The cougars broke their hearts,  losing for the 4th year in a row to the University of Utah!

ugh!

Such sad sad boys, again!

It felt like deja vu 

Not worth staying up until 2am for!!!

I have to say we still had a lot of fun together all weekend--through all the "blows" LOL

Lucky for me these boys realize that IT IS JUST a game, getting over it pretty quick,

and they still fiercely love their Cougars:) 

We are hoping for a better days ahead!

We are SO excited...

for BYU Football Season to start...TONIGHT!!

 

 

My boys have been watching this little clip in anticipation...they LOVE it!  I have to admit, this is pretty awesome--definitely gets you pumped for the season!
 

We can't wait--GO COUGARS:)

Even though the game starts well past bedtime--it is set to record and will be enjoyed as soon as possible:) 

 

Obviously, we are HUGE BYU fans around here, but I would like to know...

who do you cheer for?

A BLUE Tradition

On the morning of the BYU vs Utah game we ALWAYS have a BLUE breakfast.

It's a tradition that my boys LOVE and look forward to.

You would think that moving across the country would lessen the hype of this rivalry for my boys,

but the miles have done nothing to squash their BYU enthusiasm.

These boys of mine are true blue through and through!

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out in Tennessee!

It is now only half time and already 11:30pm here on the East coast.  Geez--we are going to be up all night watching this game, not that my boys will mind!

Lets hope these crazy little cougar fans of mine will get to go to bed happy,  reliving a win in their dreams tonight!

I am crossing my fingers:) 

Exciting News

As you all know,  we have some SERIOUS BYU fans (remember Sweet 16) in the house.  So you can only imagine the excitement when we heard that the Cougars 2011 season opener was going to be at 'Ole Miss' here in the South.  And the boys were beyond happy when Brad got tickets for them to go!  BUT what caused the MOST excitement was the news that Grandpa was flying out from Utah to join them for the game! 

The boys had just walked in from a Sunday night Youth Fireside at our church,  when Coleman told them the happy news:) 

Grandpa will fly in on Thrusday night and will make the road trip with the boys on Friday morning to Oxford Mississippi to cheer on their beloved team together. The plan is to be there in time on Friday night for the BYU Team Fireside. 

This is exciting stuff, it feels like Chrsitmas around here!

Go COUGARS!!

Source: cougarblog.wordpress.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Sweet New Orleans Weekend and some housekeeping!

Although our beloved Cougars did not advance to the Elite Eight(darn it) the boys enjoyed the Sweet 16 experience tremendously!

Some of the highlights were: being interviewed on the Doug Wright Radio Show on their way to the game (thanks to a Melandboys reader MaryAnn:), being interviewed/ photographed with their awesome sign by several reporters before the game started, chatting with Al and TJ Fredette (Jimmer's family) while waiting in line picking up their tickets, slapping Jimmer's hand as he left at halftime, cheering until they were hoarse at all 3 March Madness games in New Orleans:), and downing some powder sugared ' biegnets' in the famous Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter. They also enjoyed pizza, swimming, and just hanging out together in the Big Easy!

We were heart broken with the lose but we still LOVE our Cougars and can't wait to see Jimmer in the NBA next year! Thanks for a great season guys!

(Big smiles after beating Gonzaga)

And did you notice that I am working on some tabs up top? They are not done yet, but I am excited about doing a little" housekeeping" and getting organized here at Melandboys:) Stay tuned!

Have a wonderful week!

Sweet 16 or Bust!

Last night Brad and Coleman broke the good news to Connor and TJ (who had no idea what was going on). I felt like we were part of one of those Disney commercials! It was so fun!

You have to know that these boys of mine are SERIOUS BYU fans, so this is like a dream come true! They were beside themselves excited!!

The spent the next hour singing the *Jimmer song (*see the bottom of this post), cracking jokes and coming up with a TV worthy poster for the game....so look for this on your screens tonight:)

Bright and Early this morning---

New Orleans here we come!

Yes, we have a bad case of the Jimmers!!

GO BYU COUGARS!!

Hiking the Y and some Y fun facts

Little did I know what I was in for when I took this picture at the base of the famous Y Moutain in Provo Utah. Let me just say that it was MUCH harder than I remember it being when I hiked it as a freshman at BYU.

It was very steep! A couple of times I had to rescue the children

(Just Kidding Grandmas:)

Seriously I was exhausted! I think I need to start running again. The boys had me at a very fast pace--I kept "suggesting" we slow down to "enjoy the views" and take water breaks!

Look at that view!!

We were so proud of ourselves until we met this seriously old guy who does it for his daily exercise. He says it is the fountain of youth. He also told us that you burn 1000 calories on this hike. I am not so sure about a 1000, but...


with that in mind we treated ourselves to BIG ice cream cones at the BYU creamery (home of the BEST ice cream west of the Mississippi). OK I am not sure if that is true--but it is REALLY good!
As we ate our ice cream the boys informed me that it is now a family tradition to hike the Y everytime we go to Utah--summer or winter! I guess I better start getting into shape!




Fun Y Facts
*In 1906 the Junior class at BYU wanted to paint a big 07 on the Mountain. This of course upset the Seniors and so the Y president suggested painting BYU on the mountain instead.
*By Spring of 1907 the letters we "mapped" out on the mountain and a line of high school and college students and faculty made a bucket brigade to get buckets of lime, sand, and rocks up the mountain to fill in the letters. After 6 hours of hard labor only the Y was filled, so filling in the other two letters was postponed and later abandoned all together.
*The large white Y on the side of the mountain has become the nationally recognized insignia for BYU and the reason why BYU is often called "the Y". It is made of concrete and is 380 feet high and 130 feet wide (116 by 40 m). No other college in the United States has a larger symbol, in fact, the Y is even larger than the letters in the "Hollywood sign" in California