BYU @ UofM

BYU Football came to University of Michigan's "Big House" on September 26.  Jake and I were sooo excited to finally see our alma mater and we'd never been to an away game before.  We geared up for game day by buying tickets (next to the Sawayas), Jake's coworker told us we could park in their driveway for free, and we lined up babysitters.  Yes, plural.  We had to leave the girls for 6-8 hours and I thought that was a little long for Abby to deal with them alone.  Plus nap time can be a challenge when you're outnumbered with the twirls.  So Abby's friend (Dede's daughter) Brynna came to help.  I left them a bunch of instructions in case of emergencies (and thankfully Abby's mom who lives close by was home that day).

The day before the game I learned that the Big House has a "No Bag" policy that is pretty strict.  I'll be honest, I had a panic attack at the thought of not being with my purse.  I'm pretty much a bag lady.  I need my stuff.  Some of it's necessary (epi pen, benadryl, inhaler), some of it's often needed (lotion, chapstick, mints), and most of it's cause I love to be prepared (tissues, pocket knife, eye drops, comb, camera, sunglasses, snacks, cold sore meds, etc).  Basically - I NEED my purse.  I finally found something on their website that said if you need medical stuff you can bring it in a gallon zip lock bag.  Ugh. Great.  But I thought of a plan: I took my gallon bag through security then inside the stadium I pulled out a reusable bag from IKEA (it folds into a tiny square) to hold me gallon bag.  I was able to carry my stuff super easily without issue and no one asked me about it.  Crisis averted!  And there was even room for Laura's brown paper bag with her nursing pump in it.  The security guard looked in her bag and after .43 seconds gave it back to her and said - you're fine, go on through.  Haha!

The night before the game the BYU team gave one of their famous devotionals at our ward building.  Jake and I didn't go (baby bath time) but a UofM newspaper wrote a really cool article about it: here.

Unfortunately for every Cougar in America our team didn't show up to the game.  The little pocket of enthusiastic BYU fans we were sitting by got very quiet and solemn as the game progressed.  We finished the game with a big goose egg on the scoreboard.  The walk to the car was a very long walk of shame through Wolverine country.  Thankfully their fans were kind and most of them were politely poking fun of us.  Come on team!  Sheesh!  It was still a fun experience.

I got home and I could tell from the patio that the girls had a TON of fun with Abby and Brynna - look at all those rainbows:

Now some random pictures........

The girls love doing art.  One day I grabbed a bunch of colored paper for them to pick from and they all picked their name colors!  Silly girls!  During nap time Scarlett's been doing all sorts of art projects.  One day she made this photo, here's our conversation about it:

Scarlett: Look, I drew Aunt Jami.  Here's her nose and a happy smile and her golden hair. 

Me: What's the purple part?

Scarlett: Oh, that's her very smart brain. 

Me: What's the green on top of her head?

Scarlett: Oh, that's a stack of pancakes.  She LOVES pancakes.  :-)

Saturday September 19 was Talk Like a Pirate Day.  To celebrate Kristy Kreme was giving a FREE dozen doughnuts to whoever was dressed like a pirate (only a few locations participated... sorry Utah folks!)  So I got Scarlett all dolled up and she went on an adventure with Jake.  On their way to the Krispy Kreme they "had" to stop by a local motorcycle store and see if Scarlett's big enough for a child dirt bike (still a wee bit small).  Then they took this pirate to collect her booty.

I love this picture of the girls copying Kandy's famous "Blowfish" trick.