4th down and 18

Yes, my beloved BYU won this weekend over rival Utah. It was a defensive battle won by the team with the blue helmets. Thanks Scott and Lori for letting us come over and watch it with you at your beautiful house. Stone is still talking about how much fun he had. Also thanks for letting us spend Thanksgiving with you.

We left for Utah Wednesday just before noon. We stopped a couple of times. Once for a potty break for Rusty, once to eat, once to put air in our low tire, and once to fix the tire that 15 miles later blew out. Yes, we had a flat tire. Fortunately I decided to put in my good 2 ton jack and tire iron before we left. We also have a 12 volt air compressor that I always leave in the minivan. This came in handy when I realized the donut only had 10 PSI and needed 60 PSI. The worst part about the flat was that it was in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, and with the windchill it was probably somewhere around 5 degrees. I did also put in my Mechanix gloves and had a stocking cap. Who said I didn't learn anything in Boy Scouts?

Thursday I got up early and drove with the donut still on (we drove about 300 miles on it total) down to Draper to play football with Janna's cousins(and cousin-in-laws). It was a lot of fun. There were 33 guys there to play TACKLE football. We broke up into 4 teams and played 2 games. We won our first game and lost our 2nd in OT. It was a fun way to build up an appetite. I had a couple TD's, one thanks to a sweet hook-and-lateral from Parker and the other a TD catch.

As I said above we had dinner at Scott and Lori's and it was awesome. So much food and football to watch on their Big TV. We also watched a movie. The boys loved it and made some new friends. I played my first round of Guitar Hero and am proud to say I hit 88% of my notes on my first try.

Friday I woke up early and headed to Les Schwab for tires. I got 4 new winter tires since the van's back tires were pretty much bald. It was a tiny rock that caused the flat, the type of rock used for traction on icy roads. Cha-Ching. There went the budget for the trip. Hopefully I will be able to get another summer out of the 2 front tires and only have to buy 2 new ones next spring with rims.

The rest of the day we spent visiting family and friends. We saw my cousin and his family and my cousin Paula Ora and her family. Both have little boys we hadn't met yet. I really enjoy visiting family and friends and catching up.

We had dinner with one of my best friends from BYU. We were in the same ward and both lived in V-hall at DT. We ate at Los Hermanos in Provo and I had 2 cheese enchiladas ala carte. We sat and reminisced for nearly 2 hours. Lucky for our waiter his shift was over after we paid so he didn't lose money with us staying, some other unlucky waiter did.

On Saturday we were able to watch the big game and Janna's twin cousin Cori and her sisters Amy and Linzi and their babies came over to visit. We hadn't seen them since their babies were new and they are both so big now.

Saturday after the game we went and saw Lorlie and met her husband Matt and daughter Sienna. I can't believe how big Van seems now after seeing a 6 week old. He is huge. After visiting them we met our friend Robb and his fiancee Kim and their kids for dinner at Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square. I wasn't sure if I should have carried my .357 on me just in case, but I decided against it. Sad to think some idiot did that. We had a nice dinner with them and got to know the future Mrs. Lewis. After dinner we all headed down to Temple Square to see the lights. That is one of my favorite things during the holidays, to see the lights at temple square. I don't always get to see them but am glad when I do. I am looking forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional next weekend. Also Sadie drove up and met us for dinner and Danny drove up and met up with us at Temple Square. It was the first time meeting Van so we were glad they were able to make it back before we left this morning.

We spent the better part of today driving back via Wyoming. We made good time and it took about 2 hours less to return. We had a fun trip and are looking forward to another long weekend where we can go back. Hopefully then it will be a lot warmer.