Go Cougars!

So in my ward we have quite a few sports fanatics. They even go to some of the away BYU football games. We have a few of them in our dinner group so we've gotten to be pretty good friends. For BYU's most recent away game, vs. CSU, they made an announcement at ward prayer that anyone was invited to come along. Jessica and I were feeling adventurous so we decided we'd go along. Well they had been thinking about renting a big van, but since I had rental reimbursement because of my wrecked car, I suggested that I upgrade to a van and everyone could just pay the difference. So we got ourselves a blue minivan and headed off to the game in Fort Collins, Colorado. Luckily a girl in our ward is from Boulder and offered for us all to stay at her house.

So we headed to Colorado Friday afternoon, got there around 10:00 pm. The girl in our ward lives in this gate community with huge homes! When we got to her house her mom had made dozens and dozens of different kinds of cookies and had ice cream for us. The next morning for breakfast there was again a smorgasbord of food. There was cider, orange juice (probably fresh squeezed), and milk to drink. There was a huge fruit tray and dip. It wasn't your typical fruit tray of canteloupe, honeydew, and grapes -- It had blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and pineapple as well! Then there were bagels, muffins, and danishes galore and her mom had made this big omelet type of thing that was so delicious, it even had avocados in it. I should have taken some pictures of all the food and their house. It was like a vacation!

After breakfast we headed into town and went to an outdoor mall to kill some time. I took this picture of a lady doing yoga on top of a van.

Then we grabbed some pizzas and headed over to the CSU stadium to make some posters and tailgate.

The boys had me do the posters for them...

Sonny is the name of Colorado's coach...

Our cable provider, Dish, doesn't broadcast BCS football games...

So two of the girls we went with, Chelsea and Whitney, saw these guys and asked them if we could take a picture with them. It's kind of funny because it sort of looks like they are wearing blue shade shirts...

Here we are before the game...

Kickoff...

We beat CSU 24-3. BYU is actually doing really well this year -- they are ranked for the first time in a little while! After the game we headed back to good old Provo!

Crash!

Ok so I must have broken a mirror at some point in the last seven years because I've been having some bad luck...

I wrecked my car almost 3 weeks ago. One Friday afternoon I was sitting at home and watching TV when I saw this commercial for a new hair conditioner by Pantene Pro-V and, as some of you know, I am a succor for advertisements -- so off to Rite Aid I went. I went to Rite Aid and I got my stupid conditioner, then I decided to go next door to Big Lots to look for Grace a birthday present. On a lighter note, I found her this cute little Cinderella purse and girly accessories for like 5 bucks. So then I was all done and I got in my car and went to leave. (If only I would have stayed inside for like 2 more minutes!)

So I went to pull out of the parking lot and I needed to cross 3 lanes of traffic and get into the suicide lane so that I could turn left. Well I'm very familiar with this area and that is a tricky spot to get across, so I'm always super careful here. Anyway, by this time it was rush hour and traffic was backing up, especially in the farthest lane closest to where I was pulling out. Well this car left space for me to go, so I creeped into that lane so I could see if the rest of the way was clear and then I looked left then I looked right then I went to go and out of nowhere comes this dumb little silver suzuki and hits the front left side of my car and TOTALLY crunches the front of my car. It's wierd how it hit it in one spot, but yet it got crunched all the way around.

So the driver of the car gets out and he is this little Hispanic guy that doesn't speak much English. I'm like "oh my goodness I'm so sorry about this... I've never been in a wreck before, I'm not sure what to do...should I call the police?" and he was like in broken English) "uhh uhh, I have make call to brother." So i was like oh great, hes probably trying to call his brother to get some phony bologna insurance information. So I called the police (it was kind of exciting to be able to call 911) and then they came and we moved our cars out of the road. But meanwhile when we were waiting for the police, like everybody I know was driving by and honking, it was so embarassing.

Then we had to fill out a police report thing and the policeman gave me a ticket for "failure to yield"!!! I was like what the world, are you kidding me? He said that anytime you go from a private property (the rite aid parking lot) to a publc property (the road) and there is a collision, by definition it is considered failure to yield. ugh!! So i was like, well isnt the speed limit here like 30? And he was like umm im not sure, I think so. And I was like well by the damage to my car and the fact that I looked both ways then they came out of nowhere, wouldnt you think they were going faster than 30 mph, shouldn't they get a speeeding ticket. And he was like well its hard to make that conclusion, so they wont be issued a citation. ugh!

Anyway, my car wasn't really drivable, but luckily I was like 4 blocks from home and the officer said I would be able to make it, so i just drove really carefully but it was like stalling every time I tried to accelerate. But luckily I made it home ok and a tow-truck just came to pick it up the following Monday to take it into the shop.


Here it is just sitting on my street waiting for the tow truck...

It turns out the damage to my car was like $6500 so my insurance decided to total it. But my adjuster person is only in the office until 2:30 my time most days so I still haven't been able to find out how much they will give me for the value of my car. I think I will just go the rest of the semester without a car. (I have rental reimbursement for about one more week, so that has been nice!)

The good news is that everyone is ok, so I guess I am lucky in that regard.

Drive Safely!

The Greatest Show on Earth...

So last month the circus was in town the same weekend as General Conference. We decided while we were up in Salt Lake we should go to the circus on Saturday evening after conference. It turned out to be a lot of fun. If you get there early you get to participate in the pre-show activities down on the floor. I think pictures speak louder than words, so I'll just post a bunch of pictures and a few video clips.

This first video clip is of a cute little poodle riding a bike!

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

This video is of "Hercules"...he caught a cannonball!

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

This last video is of a bunch of little Asian guys swinging off of a swing and landing on the trapeze. They flew up to the trapeze one by one and stacked like 6 of them...check it out

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Here we are trying on some circus costumes

(Jessica, Amy, Laura, Me)

This is Me and Jessica trying out the circus guy's motorcycle.

Cutest Elephant Ever!

Here we are with a mix between a donkey and a zebra

...it was pretty funky looking.

General Conference

We were lucky to have tickets to go to General Conference. Not just one session, but two! We went up to the Conference Center for Saturday afternoon session and Sunday afternoon session. I absolutely love conference! It always reminds me of a scripture in Mosiah. King Benjamin had just addressed his people and it says that after hearing his message they experienced a change of heart and had no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually! That is always how I feel after conference...like I just want to do good from then on! I know President Hinckley is a prophet of God and I am so grateful that we have the truthfulness of the Gospel on the earth today!

This is outside of the Conference Center on Saturday afternoon

Inside the conference center

Sunday afternoon (with Eliza's boyfriend Joseph and our friend Jake)