RISE, ALL LOYAL COUGARS

So, 7 days before BYU completely crushed UCLA, I watched my very first football game! I've been to many, I was True Blue in my B-Y-Utah days and I currently annually attend one token football game at AHS (the Homecoming one... fireworks! Naming of the Queen and King! 400-member marching band and a 100-member Color Guard that's actually cool!), but... watch them? Really?

Uh, no. I watch the crowd, the people around me, the cheerleaders (those mini girls-- so cute, so amazing in their high-flying feats!), whatever game-appropriate food I'm eating... but NOT the game.

Maybe here and there, and I sure have fun singing the fight song when we score (or is it goal?) (just kidding) (although it's not far off that I would think that), trying to get on the JumboTron (as taught by my bro) and cheering when everyone else cheers... but... I usually am distracted by everything else but the plays, and have no idea what is going on. In fact, in high school when I was a cheerleader-- a CHEERLEADER-- I had no idea what "Offense" or "Defense" was. (In terms of football, that is-- I'm not a complete idiot). I would just listen to the Varsity cheerleaders and whatever they called (Offense! Defense!), my squad would cheer accordingly! It was AWESOME. Very influential and educating time in my life.

But, ever since my Daddy be-gifted me with a sweet pair of high-powered Nikon 'nocs (the salesman at the hunting-based sporting goods store was frankly appalled when I said my primary use for them would be "...y'know, to watch Broadway shows, look at stars, n'stuff..."), everything is bigger, better, and zoomed-in crystal clear.

So THIS game-- BYU Cougars vs. U of Washington Huskies-- was a whole new world! And man am I glad I watched the whole game, almost every play, and almost all of those through my 'nockers-- because it was AMAZING.

(still watched the cheerleaders, though... but even they were better through binoculars. Orange face makeup!)

My dad and my little sister Kate both live in Washington, and my dad spent some of his retirement/our inheritance (good use of either!) to fly my bro Chad and I out for the game... we'd done the same two years earlier, except we all met in Colorado, and it was such a great family time that we decided to do it again! The fourth child, my oldest brother, Shall Not Be Named in this post because he couldn't come this year, boooooo.

Chad and my dad are True Blue, and I had a rockin' shirt (self-made-- it was one of the demos for when I teach the kiddies how to screen print on t-shirts) with the best portion of the Fight Song on it,

but KATE... ohhhhh, Kate-- actually attended U-Dub, so she was sporting the Blue purely out of peer pressure, the fear of being pummeled since she was sitting in the visitor's section, and-- well, because Chad gave her the shirt as a birthday gift--, BUT-- was also wearing purple underneath!!! She is dead to us. I don't care if it was a precaution just in case UW won.

Shouldn't have feared, though, because.... WE WON! BIG-time. Take that, Huskies!

The game was great, the day was beautiful, and Washington is my dream state-- I love being there in late summer especially, because there are wild blackberries everywhere! Including along the path we took to get back to our car, post-football-victory ...

YUM

And, the final gift of the day-- the classic, beloved Half of the Face sunburn... that brought back memories! You could always tell by the placement of the sunburn, where someone had been sitting at the game that day. Not-so-cute when you were trying to accomplish Cute Sunday at your university ward the next day, but... no less a badge of honor. And a pretty bold statement that you, YOU, are a COUGAR.

An exceptional weekend all together, and Washington chose to bid me a fond farewell with some SPECTACULAR views of its mid-state icon, Mount Rainier, through my airplane window as I flew home Sunday night. Thanks, Washington!

(views as we passed over and by Mount Rainier, out the left side of the plane... I had my little point-and-shoot camera on its widest lens position, to just TRY to fit what I was seeing in the frame-- amazing! ENJOY! ) (copyright jdoezie2008, by the way. Steal, and die.)