You know you've arrived when they schedule the Superbowl around your birthday!

~You know you're behind when you realize you're posting Superbowl updates. Please have patience as we work through our technology and sleep (mine) depravation issues. Thank you for your support~

We got a bunch of family together and did what nearly every other family in the world was doing on superbowl weekend - we mocked each other football team choice and ate too much yummy food. Thanks to Chris and Angie who hosted the big gala!

~~I swear there is something on the screen!!~~

Luckily after the major blowout we had a birthday to break up the carnage. Tanner celebrated by forcing the chocolate shards into the layers of cake -- clearly he was done opening up his gifts. And the good news is most of us had already had our slice of cake.

Happy Birthday Tanner! Can't wait until next year.

Out of their element, out of their league — and still perfect.

Not having come quite down from the high of our New Year celebration we spent the following Saturday watching the University of Utah tromp all over Alabama.

What a great game! 

There were so many great plays. I have to admit we all didn't think it would go across quite that well ... don't get me wrong we thought they would win (duh!) we just didn't think it would all happen quite so smoothly and really start so early in the game. 

Our friends were nice enough to invite us over to crash in their basement for the big game (we missed Cliff and Trudy and their kids) but we did have some goodies left over from the 31st - how could we not have had stuff left over!?!

For those of you not quite up on the NCAA football story (or those who just want to keep reading some stats and details) I give you the following:  

... "They jumped ahead of us early in the game. I don't think we gave them their due respect coming into the game," Coffee said. "That's something we never should have allowed to happen."

... Mountain West Conference champion Utah became the first team from a non-BCS conference to win two BCS bowls. The Utes beat Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl under coach Urban Meyer, going for his second BCS national title with Florida when his Gators play Oklahoma on Thursday in Miami.

~ Coach Whittingham ... voted Coach of the Year ~

... "I know where I'm voting us. I'm voting us No. 1. End of story," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said after Friday's game. "I don't know why they wouldn't deserve that consideration. Somebody has to explain to me why they wouldn't. There is only one undefeated team in the United States of America right now in Division I football, and it's these guys right here."

... Utah's only chance for a piece of the national title — albeit a remote possibility — is in The Associated Press poll. The AP, not part of the BCS, awards its own national champion. The Utes are the only team in the AP Top 25 that remains unbeaten.

... "What else do we have to prove?" Johnson said. "Without question, we're one of best, if not the best team in the country."

The Houston Chronicle adds to the mix: 
... Utes found ways to win


... Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he plans to investigate the BCS for a possible violation of federal antitrust laws. That’s funny.
... Trust me, this isn’t an antitrust issue. It’s an anti-anybody but the big boys issue. That makes it an anti-Utah issue.
... Utah played the games on its schedule, a schedule that the NCAA rates as more difficult than USC’s and Alabama’s (hmm...), and won them all.
... “I think we proved ourselves,” Johnson said. “We had some ups and downs, but we persevered.”
... All the good teams did that, Mr. Johnson. When USC, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida were pushed to the limit, they found ways to win too. Well, all but that one time. When Utah was pushed to the limit, it found ways to win. Every time.

... To get one victory, the Utes had to force TCU to miss a couple of fourth quarter field goals before Johnson threw the game-winning touchdown with 48 seconds left. To earn a win over Oregon State (a week after the Beavers upset then-No.1 USC), the Utes needed to score 11 points in the last 89 seconds, including a game-winning field goal as time expired. To get another victory, they had to stop two New Mexico drives at midfield in the final four minutes of a three-point win.

It's hard to figure out which is better - besting our local rivals or making Barry Switzer eat his own words and suck up a little smugness about Utah while he was at it! Oh ... there both terrific!

Happy New Year

We celebrated the new year as we've done for practically the last 18 years - with some of our closest friends! It is pretty amazing since Shawn and I just celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. 

Our group is really spread across the Salt Lake Valley now that we've all finally moved out of the University of Utah Married Student Housing - where we all met. We typically alternate sites to meet and since we hosted last year's party we held this year's party down on the south end of the valley. We had a somewhat smaller group this year and one of the couples who lives near the party house offered to let all of the kids hand out there - so they had quite a house full, of course they start with more than six kids of their own. 

As usual there was no shortage of food and snacks. We've elected to have pots of soups, stews, and chowders brewing on the stove for people to eat along with breads and rolls and then vegetables and assorted appetizers. It makes it nice especially when the evening rolls into the early morning and you start to get hungry again!

We're also usually playing games that someone has learned or received for Christmas that year  and this year was no exception. Except this year's game was a little more complex and took us 3 1/2 hours for 12 people to play one hand! But perhaps it's really old age creeping in. Maybe we should stick with the junior version of these games. You can see those of us on the north end of the table waiting, and waiting for the group on the other end of the table to make their very strategic play ........

Luckily Ron got help from his wife and Bonnie otherwise who knows how long it would have taken us to finish the round.

 

Once we made it through one round we decided to get really wild and try and trick we'd seen on the internet - popping popcorn with our cell phones.

Here's the original clip in case you've been living under a rock

@ Yahoo! Video

So you absolutely have to give it a try ... here's our third attempt (I won't overwhelm you with the other two tries) - you'll have to watch the video - I don't want to spoil it. 

Ok - so after some minor modifications, we figured out and corrected the problem and see - wa la - magic cell phones working again!!

I can't believe we stayed until the kids came home (look how surprised SHE looks), I can't believe it gets later each year and I can't believe we probably could have continued to sit there and keep talking and laughing... of course we wouldn't have been able to drive home.

Thanks everyone, but especially Brent & Bonnie for putting up with the mess and noise. Can't wait until next year!