BYU vs Tennessee

For Jackson's birthday this year, we took him to Tennessee for the BYU vs. Tennessee football game. We drove into the night Friday then started bright and early on Saturday in the pool. I think this was Jackson's favorite part of the trip. He made a couple new friends at the pool, which I appreciated because then he didn't insist I get in the water with him.

None of us had been to Knoxville before, so we headed downtown to explore and happened upon the BYU alumni association's tailgate party. We also went up in the Sunsphere Tower, which has a great 360 degree view of the city. My parents and Jacob and Nalon also came down for the game so we met them there that afternoon.

We fueled up before the game on pizza and garlic knots.

The walk from downtown Knoxville to the stadium was so beautiful - I love a good riverfront city!

The game was at Neyland Stadium and let me tell you, there's college football and then there's SEC college football. I've never experienced anything like it! The stadium holds something like 90,000 people and it was full, so it was incredibly loud. It was also incredibly hot, but fortunately the sun set quickly. 

In addition to my parents and Jacob and Nalon, we were sitting with Thomas and Madison's friends the Arringtons and their baby Dayton. He did impressively well in such a loud, crazy stadium!

The marching band was incredible! I was super impressed by their formations.

The game was tight the whole time, but with less than a minute left, we were down by 3 and pretty much gave up hope. But then BYU completed something like a 60-yard pass to put us into field goal position and the kicker made it. Overtime! We were shocked and so, so excited. We ended up going into double overtime before ultimately winning it. It was NUTS. So suspenseful, so exciting, and so, so fun. 

After the game, we went down to the loading ramp to wait for the players to come out so we could snap some pictures with our favorite player. 

The game didn't start until 7 pm and then it went into double overtime. Then we had to walk back to the parking garage and it took us like a half an hour to get out of traffic. It was a late night. Jackson hung in there, even though it was waaaay past his bedtime. But within about 7 minutes of being in the car, he was out cold.

We stayed the night there then headed home in the morning. What a fun weekend!

Utah Trip August 2019

Thomas is a senior this year, so it was his last season of football. We wanted to go to one of the home games, so we chose the season opener against Utah. The game was the Thursday before Labor Day so we took an extended weekend vacation and made a trip out of it.

I was really excited to see the game and see friends and family, but I was also really excited for Utah food! Some faves - Kneaders french toast, Cubby's, Crown Burger, Crumbl Cookies, Zao Asian Cafe, Cafe Rio, and JDawgs.

I went out a day early so I could see friends. It was such a fun day and I was able to connect with mission companions, college roommates, and singles ward friends. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with those people, but of course got pictures of the food.

Once Brandon arrived, we spent the first day visiting the BYU Bookstore before heading to the game that evening. I had to get my chocolate covered cinnamon bears!

The weather started out nice, albeit very hot. But in the shade it wasn't too bad and the game started in the evening so it was really pleasant once the sun went down. Once the game started, though, clouds started to roll in and by the second half we were getting rained on pretty heavily then had to sit through an extended lightning delay.

Before all of that, though, we got to go down to the sidelines and see Thomas and the other players warm up.

The game was not great - aside from the weather, the team didn't do so well and ended up losing, but we had great seats and had a great time.

In past visits, we spent most of our time visiting people. This time, though, I wanted to make sure we had at least some time to actually be on vacation. On Friday we headed to Salt Lake and visited the Family History Museum, did a session at the Salt Lake Temple, and had dinner at The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We stayed downtown at the Radisson in a beautiful room overlooking the city. It was my favorite part of the trip. I love being with Brandon and exploring new places together.

The view of the sunset from The Garden was gorgeous, as was the building itself.

The next day, we had lunch at City Creek then headed up the canyon and drove through Park City up over the mountain. It was a gorgeous day and the views were stunning.

We had a cookout in Provo Canyon that night with my family. We ate and played games and walked along the Provo River. The next day was Sunday so we went to church with Thomas (we stayed with Thomas and Madison which was really nice) then had family dinner at Isaac and Dominika's house in Saratoga Springs. It was fun to see their cute kids who are growing up so fast and so far away from us.

It was such a fun trip and I'm so glad Brandon was able to come - it's fun to share with him a place that is so special to me. I always feel a little like home when I'm in Utah.