Glorious Weekend

Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I have a couple of specific loves in life: college basketball, especially March Madness, and family, especially my sweet grandbaby, Emily.  Those two entities combined last Thursday through Saturday to create a fantastically glorious long weekend.  Seriously, I had to ask myself if life could get any better than it was for those few days.  (Maybe if Duke had played in the West Region?)

I have two partners in crime who helped to schedule this wonderful combination of favorite things.  Adam LOVES college basketball and was even brainwashed from an early age to love the Blue Devils, and Mike adores his granddaughter.  When we discovered that some of the early-round NCAA tourney games were going to be in Salt Lake City, well, we just had to get ourselves down there.  Brigham City is luckily "on the way" to SLC, and somehow, we never booked accommodations in the big city.  We simply stayed in Brigham.  Even though it was an hour away from the venue, it wasn't one iota inconvenient since we had Emily (and Karen and Andrew) to play with.  It was perfect.

The games were generally pretty good.  Some were downright excellent.  Adam, Karen, and I went to the first two games on Thursday while Granddad played with Emily.  He said it was his favorite part of the weekend.

I was impressed with Energy Solutions Arena.  Our seats were
in the nosebleed section, but we could still see really well.

I generally hate these "hold-the-camera-yourself-and-take-the-picture"
shots.  I think you can see why.  But I love how happy  we look.

Yes, my son is a goofball.  Both sons are, actually.

Mike, Andrew, and Adam went to the evening two games on Thursday and got to see Harvard upset New Mexico.  They said it was a really good game (sorry, Mountain West fans!).  Karen, Emily, and I went back to Brigham and watched parts of the games on TV.

Adam, Mike, and I went to both Saturday games as Karen and Andrew had other responsibilities that day.  (I seriously wondered about my parenting skills if they thought something was more important than college basketball. . . .)  The Gonzaga-Wichita State game was awesome as the Shockers were shooting lights-out from three-point land.  We also got to see my sister and her family as they were there to watch the games as well.  Pretty fun stuff.

When basketball wasn't being played, and sometimes even when it was, we had loads of fun with sweet Emily.  She is a BUSY little soul, and while we don't get lots of snuggles or quiet time with her, she completely melts our hearts.  I think Karen stays so skinny by chasing after and/or entertaining this little munchkin.  She's a handful, and, oh, how we love her!  

One of her favorite activities is pulling Granddad's hair.

One of Mike's favorite pastimes is making Emily laugh.

My sister randomly found this "I Love Nana" shirt at
Old Navy a few months ago.  I've been looking for
an "I Love Emily" shirt ever since.

Adam has had the inside track on becoming the favorite uncle/aunt
on the Young side since both of his siblings are on missions.  Cheater!

Emily continues to be quite obsessed with mouths and teeth.
Maybe she'll go into the dental field like her Great-Grandpa Young.

Thanks again, Emily and parents, for a wonderful weekend.  The food was yummy, the accommodations comfortable, the activities delightful, and the love plentiful.  Truly glorious!!

Right Place, Right Time, Good Kid

Wow! I thought it had been at least six months since I had blogged.  I was happy to log in and discover that it had been a little less than that.  See?  I'm not as behind on life as I thought I was.  I offer no excuses besides just plain laziness, and I make no promises for the future.  I do like looking back at what's transpired in our lives, so maybe I will try to increase my average to more than two posts a year.

We had kind of a cool thing happen recently.  Adam got a couple of awards, one from the Eagle Fire Department and one from the YMCA, both for the same good December deed.  When the Eagle Fire Department notified him that he was going to be honored, we were all a little surprised, but we figured we should show up if they were going to make the effort.  So, we did, and it was a nice little event.  Here is the link to the article that appeared in the newspaper:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/03/12/2488633/three-centennial-high-runners.html

Two local news stations also aired the story on the ten o'clock news.  

In summary, Adam and two of his cross country friends were out on a winter training run in the foothills.  About a mile and a half into the run, they stumbled upon a huge, distressed dog and an injured woman sprawled out awkwardly on the ground.  She had already called "911" for help, but she was worried that the paramedics wouldn't be able to find her because she was running trails.  She was also in a lot of pain.  Adam's friend Micah ran back to the start of the trail to guide the paramedics in while Adam and Emily stayed with Leslee, the injured runner.  Emily tried to control the dog, and Adam gave Leslee his shirt to keep her warm and tried to keep her calm in the process.

Micah soon brought the paramedics back, and they air-lifted Leslee to the hospital where she had surgery to repair her broken femur and did great.  She is back on her feet and even running again.  (Those runners are tough ones, eh?)  Besides being a little cold and tired--they ran more than ten miles in the process of getting reunited with each other after they had made arrangements for the dog, etc.--, Adam and his friends were none the worse for wear either.  Adam did apologize for being gone so long.

(l. to r. Micah Drew, Adam, Leslee Hoover, and Emily Coleman)

The YMCA honored the kids because Leslee works there, and the Eagle Fire Department honored them because it's good public relations.  Leslee and her husband also gave each of them a water bottle and a gift card to Bandanna, which happens to be Adam's favorite running store.  I was just pleased that Adam "did what any normal person would have done" and didn't think it was that big of a deal.  Leslee seemed to think it was, and I'm glad everything turned out okay.  Good work, Adam!

Leslee and the runners with the paramedics who got Leslee to the hospital.