Our friends, the McFadden's, agreed to watch Kristen for the day. I'm sure they'll have extra blessings for their kindness. We dropped Kristen off around 9:45 am and headed to Colorado Springs. We arrived shortly after 11 am for the tailgate party with hundreds of other BYU fans--others from our group had already arrived--and we joined them for lunch.
Amy's highlight was seeing the BYU cheer squad and having her face painted. Ahhh the dreams they have inspired. But she did think being an Air Force pilot would be pretty cool too, so now she has a dilemma--cheerleader, pilot.
Misha was most enthralled by a tree to climb with Jonah. Different children, different aspirations.
What would be a tailgate party without Cosmo, the BYU mascot?
Half an hour before game time, we headed toward the stadium. We entered through the wrong gate, walked 3/4 of the way around the stadium and finally found our seats.
It was pretty cool to watch the pregame entrance of the cadets in their formality and organization--and then watching them spread like ants as they ran toward their seats.
The highlight for us was the flyover. All of a sudden the three planes were upon us flying in the fallen man formation in honor of a fallen comrade. The noise was incredible, the might was amazing, and as they passed by they turned and flew heavenward. Inspiring.
As expected, I got cold quite quickly. Shoot! I get cold in my house, what did I expect in an open-air stadium. At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, I took the girls to the bathroom and realized that there was still sunshine on the concourse, so we hung out there until half-time. Chris came to find me and began to thaw a little as well.
Suddenly, I turned around and there were our good friends, Wendy and Larry Helms We hadn't seen each other since we moved from Utah in 2001. They moved to Colorado, but much further south, about a month later. We've corresponded--usually at Christmastime--over the years, but this was so much fun to get caught up. We made plans to meet afterward for dinner at Texas Roadhouse.
I felt badly for Sarah watching Kristen for even longer, but hoped she would forgive me since Larry happens to be her cousin. Small world.
I worked with Wendy probably 13 years ago at UVSC and was so disappointed when she left her job there to go into teaching. Christopher was her replacement, and I got over her being gone. After Chris and I were married, Larry offered me a job with the company he worked for at the time, and so I had the opportunity of working with both of them. Cool people and we wish that we or they lived closer--mostly them since we don't want to move.
Chris finally caved into little girls' requests to buy hot chocolate.
It was hot and sadly Misha burned her thumb when some of the liquid spilled down her front.
We finally arrived home before 9 pm. Kristen was asleep on Sarah's couch and stayed mostly asleep until I laid her in her own bed. She whispered, "Is this my house?" and after I answered in the affirmative, fell into a deep sleep. Again, Sarah, thank you so much!