Labor Day Part 1

BYU played Ole Miss over Labor Day weekend.  Since Oxford, Mississippi is only a 5 hour drive, we decided to get us some tickets and go to the game.  Brielle was SOOO excited!  She wanted to see the Cougars!  She made double sure that I packed her "cougar shirt" and practiced up on all her cheers ( "Rah rah, Gooooo Cougars!").  She made the drive well - as long as "George" (as in Curious) was on.

The morning of the game, Brielle woke up at 4:00 a.m. shouting, "I'm in Missippi!  I go see da cougars!"  It took a little bit to help her understand that she wasn't going to see the Cougars for several more hours and that she might want to go back to sleep for a bit.

Acting on advice from our fellow hotel patrons, we got to the game early.  Way early.  6 hours early.  Good thing we did, because we barely found a place to park - about a mile from the stadium.  And we were introduced to the concept of tailgating such as we have never seen.  Ole Miss is famous for its tailgates.  There is an eight-acre piece of grass in the middle of campus called "The Grove."  On game day, The Grove is filled with tents.  It's not uncommon to see men in blazers and ties, women in dresses and heels.  Some tents are adorned with chandeliers, china, and we saw more than one flat-screen tv with a dish hooked up.  The amount of food was amazing.

A view of The Grove

As we walked around campus, we passed the bookstore and decided to go in to take advantage of the air conditioning for a few minutes.  As soon as we walked in the door, I saw the back of a man that I instantly recognized.  It was my high school cross country coach.  I hadn't seen him for about 11 years!  How random that we ran into each other in Oxford, Mississippi of all places.  It was so great to see him and catch up on the last few years.  Of course, we got a picture.

Brielle was having none of that.

We took her to the car where she zonked out for an hour. Poor baby!

At last it was game time!  We found our seats and cheered our loudest.  Brielle was in heaven watching the cougars and cheering with the fans!  She even found a pom pom (Ok, so it was an Ole Miss pom pom, but it served its purpose) and waved it wildly whenever the Cougars made a good play.  I guess it worked, because we ended up with a win! 

Mark had a "Blast From the Past" moment himself.  We ended up sitting next to an old buddy of his from BYU.

Our family after the game.  Wins always make us smile!

We got close enough to get a good picture of Jake Heaps giving an interview.



After the game ended, my family called to tell me that they saw us on TV!  As soon as the game ended, I guess they turned the camera on the BYU fans, and we were right there.  They were so excited to see us at the game.  :)  We had a great time.  Go Cougars!