Making Memories

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take my nephew to the BYU-Colorado State game. He's only 11 and shows a real aptitude toward BYU fanaticism, which is definitely something I want to foster :) I wondered how it would be taking him. College football games can be long and I figured he'd probably get bored at some point, but he was such a blast to be with the entire time. He knows more about football than I thought he would, and really enjoyed yelling his loudest on defensive third downs, and sang all the words to the fight song each time we scored, after I pointed out that they put the words up on the video screen. (But even before then, he knew a lot of the words :)

Of course I loved going to the BYU game. I love being in that stadium with 65,000 other people in blue and white. I love the team this year and am so proud to be a Cougar, but my favorite part of yesterday wasn't watching Max Hall walk untouched into the endzone or cheering my heart out when we kept a late CSU drive to a fieldgoal. My favorite part about yesterday was being an aunt...singing along to Rascal Flatts with my nephew in the passenger seat on the drive down to Provo, putting matching tattoos on our cheeks and taking goofy pictures, watching my nephew participate in the pre-game activities and win himself a new BYU shirt, watching him take in the splendor as the stadium filled with people, watching him search and search the field for the number 84 on the back of a jersey because he's such a fan of Jan Jorgensen.

Yesterday was incredible not because BYU moved its record to 3-1 but because I made memories with a kid I love and care about so much, a kid I watched be born and come into his own as a pre-teen, a kid who loves reading as much as I do and dreams of being a famous actor or a BYU football player or swimmer, a kid that asks the most random hypothetical questions you'd ever think of, a kid that's okay being smart and geeky, that's okay being best friends with his younger brother, and a kid that thinks he's much older than he is, is sensitive, and kind... a kid I'm blessed enough to call my nephew.


P.S. Thanks so much to Tyler and Jessica for getting me those tickets. You guys are amazing.