As soon as it was announced that BYU would be playing in the Las Vegas Bowl, Justin started making plans. That man loves his Cougar Football. I thought I'd seen fan loyalty. Heck, I even thought I was a loyal fan of my teams. But Justin takes his fandom to a whole 'nother level. I should have known what I signed up for when while on a date near the beginning of our relationship we were in line to buy tickets for a movie; Justin pulled out his phone and when I asked him what he was looking up he sheepishly smiled and said, "BYU football started practice today." Practice? You actually know when they start practice?!! And you are checking up on it?!! Oey vey.
But I love him and hope that packing for and going on a trip less than a week before another big trip (and Christmas) is clear evidence of that ♥
So ya, we packed up and headed to LV on Dec. 18, returned on the 20th, had about a day and a half (work included) to re-pack a completely different wardrobe for our Hawaii trip for which we left on the 22nd. Crazy! But we are loyal Cougar fans and made it happen. Don't forget how awesome your wifey is Justin!
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For obvious reasons I couldn't start with this photo, but this is our friend Jim Low! Justin and I were driving pretty close to the stadium and since it was near game time it was bumper to bumper over several lanes trying to get into the parking lot. I was putting makeup on in the passenger seat and all of the sudden Justin said, "Hey, it's Jim!" and sure enough, there he was with his ugly hat ☺ waving to us. Seriously though, what are the chances of us seeing him?! We didn't even know he was going to the game!
We got to the stadium a little early because we had to find some tickets still. That's right, not only was it a last minute trip, but we didn't even have tickets when we went! And they were going for hundreds of dollars at one point! But Justin had been checking CougarBoard and was very confident that we could scalp some tickets at the stadium for not too expensive. I told a few people we were going down without tickets and, without saying it, they clearly thought we were crazy.
I'll admit, I was skeptical. It's not the first time I've doubted Justin's scalping abilities. There have been times when I think we're not going to get tickets and I try to get him to just give in and pay more so we can have the peace of mind, but he always always comes through and gets the tickets for no more than he wants to pay. Still though, I doubted. When am I ever going to learn?! My Justin is a bomb ticket scalper.
True to form we ended up getting the tickets for I think $30 each and they were actually really good seats too...except they were in the Utah section. As soon as I saw the sea of red I told Justin no way, we had to move. And thank heavens we did.
We went to the endzone where there was lots of room and lots of blue. And we were treated to a surprise F-15 flyover that went right over our heads! So cool!
Now, about the game. It...didn't start out well.
BYU turned the ball over FIVE times in the first quarter, and Utah took advantage of every.single.one. With each turnover I kept thinking "this can't get any worse." But it just went from bad, to worse, to embarrassing. The first quarter took over an hour and I was done. I seriously wanted to go home. I didn't care how much effort it took to get to the game, I was not having fun. But Justin, a true loyal fan, wanted to stay but felt bad for me so he compromised and asked if we could stay until half and if it was still bad, we'd go. I reluctantly agreed. We moved seats again because when we first sat down we had tons of room all around us, and the seats that were filled were BYU fans, but as the first quarter went on it filled in with more and more red. So we went to the BYU side and found some friendlier faces to sit next to for what I was sure would be the longest half of football ever.
BUT, I'm so proud to say that somehow BYU regained their composure and came back to within 7 points (and a pretty darn good chance to tie it up)! It's not easy to get yourself pumped when you're down by so many points in the first quarter, but they really showed heart. It ended up being such a fun and exciting game that even though we lost, it didn't really feel like a loss.
See? Happy faces at the end of the game ☺
Beautiful sunset
Justin and I always joke that we are kinda sad we didn't start dating years earlier. There are lots of reasons of course, but just think of all the Las Vegas Bowls we could have gone to together (with a nice, convenient place to stay) if we'd just met a few years before haha!
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My cousin Chelseigh was in the hospital again (she's had a rough go the past few years with Crohn's Disease and it's effects :( ) so my Gm and Gp Hunt, Andy, and Uncle Adam (Chels' dad) were also in town and it was great to see them, despite the circumstances.
The night we got there Nolan went up to my Gp Hunt and Gp started giving him a neck rub. He apparently loved it because he seriously stood there for like 10 minutes!
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I have the best 2 grandpa's around!! I love these two so much and am so grateful for everything they have taught me and continue to teach me, and so appreciate all of the love and support they have always shown me.
My Uncle Adam and his son (my cousin), Ethan, and daughter in law, Ashley, and their son Mason came over to watch the UNLV basketball game one night.
Uncle Andy keeping Nolan warm while my Gp Hunt checked out my Gp Mathews' car.
Uncle Andy handled breakfast for us ♥
Playing!
My grandparents gave Nolan this super cute "stuffy" iguana. It has all kinds of pockets to put things in. Nolan loves grabbing things out that we put in.
He was busting a gut throwing the little football GG gave him in the car on the drive home!
