BYU Football

{For 18 months 

--> – Jan ’17 to Jul ’18 – I'm posting our letter to Miranda while she's on her mission to Cochabamba, Bolivia.  Our letter titles are taken from a list of family sayings & catchphrases we recorded onto a pillowcase she has with her.  You can read her adventures on her mission blog: www.hermanamadsen.blogspot.com!}

Sorry, but that's the subject heading because it was the first home game and Dad & Morgan had SO MUCH FUN going with Grandpa & Alex.

First, can I just say that this week was so crazy and busy, but it's hard to pinpoint what we did, because it's the first full week of 4 piano lessons, 3 soccer practices, tennis practice after school Tues, Thurs, & Fri for Derek, a campout for Derek, and 3 soccer games on Saturday.  So our first pictures were of H&K's soccer team, the Orange Flames:

The Purple Eagles (Brother Cooper is coaching Connor & Nathan),

And Morgan's team in black:

Then that night, we split into 3 groups.  1 - Carlie had her friends over to watch the game here while Derek was also here babysitting the kids & they all had a pizza party.  2 - Dad & Morgan went to the BYU/ UofU game with Grandpa & Alex with Grandpa's season tix:

And for your viewing pleasure, the U OF U FANS who were invited by family members to come sit by them!  Not a fun experience for them OR Dad, if you can imagine.  =)  And Dad is, as is the custom, completely without his voice today.  He left it in the stadium. =)

3 - I drove up to Driggs, ID with Scott & Grant to Emily's family lodge for her double reception/open house with her sister Katie, who got married last week.

When I parked the car, I checked my phone, and then set it down in my cup holder, like I always do.  I talked to Scott & Grant for awhile about where we would change into our nice clothes, started getting things together, and finally noticed that for at least 2 minutes, my phone had been submerged in my water, almost completely.  I don't think its alive; I could see in the screen that it was 2/3 full of water.  I feel really weird: untethered, floating unsecurely, and strangely giddy and carefree that no one can get to me, even if they tried.  =)  =(

Then Scott & I left at 10:30 to make the 5 hour journey home.  One time when I looked out the window, I saw this, and I had to pull over and we just looked at it for a minute.  I call this: "Stop and Smell the" Sky.

We arrived at the house at 3:15, stayed talking in the car in the driveway for another hour + 15, and then I crawled into bed at 5am.  Dad got up and took the boys to their early priesthood meeting, and then got the kids ready and took them to Regional Conference, leaving me to sleep.  I thought it was SO NICE of him, since I could just go to the 1:00 broadcast, but I showed up, and no one was there.  =(  I missed a REALLY GOOD conference, and I'm so sad.  I hope I can find a copy of it somewhere!

We celebrated Grandpa Madsen's 69th birthday tonight with LAVA CAKE.  If you have a crockpot, I'll tell you the easy recipe.  It was a hit.  =)  (those are just brownies I made in case the lava cake didn't work out)

I just want you to know that I've been thinking a lot about you, and praying for you.  I'm so happy for you that you're having a good time with a companion who loves, respects, and laughs with you.  These times are just as important as the soul-searching, hard times.  I'm happy for both kinds of experiences.  I wish I had amazing words of wisdom for you, but it's 2:42am, because I stayed up talking to my dad for the last 3 hours... so worth it!!!  He's here while Grandma is at Kimmy's taking care of just Easton & Max while they all go to Spain to visit Todd's parents while they're in their last year as mission pres.  Remember he's Eric Jamison's MP?  Kimmy took a package over to the mission home for Sis. Jamison.  So cool. 

So while Grandpa's here, he's going to redo our fireplace into a work of art for us.  =)  I'm so excited!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!  Thank you for the small flood of pictures... it means so much to us to see your face.  I love that you're taking a million pics.  You won't regret any of them!  Well, you might regret some of them =) but you won't regret that you took so many!  It's amazing.  =)

Heart, heart, heart, heart, Mom

Oh my gosh the memes.  Ok, these just hit me really funny this week.  You might have to be in the right mood.  They startled me and I laughed out loud at the first 2:

And I saw this shirt while I was school shopping for the kids:

And a batch of the good old Star Wars ones I liked:

iiWhole face!!