BYU Homecoming 2015, Part 1

On a whim, we headed up to Provo for Homecoming, and Heidi and Sam decided to join us.

First stop--the parade.

I love the shy wave Hyrum gives the cheerleader.

And pumpkin spice Krispy Kreme as we watched and caught candy. Notice the discarded sucker stuck in the street sign? Micah rejected it for something much better.

Ellie reared her head back and gave her daddy a bloody nose, but he wasn't the only casualty. Micah was "sucker punched," as Lily named it, when a sucker hit him in the head while he was looking the other direction.

Two lucky ones in our group (Micah and Nathan) even scored chocolate ice cream cones.

After the parade, we rounded up all the troops (this is getting harder, not easier, for some reason) and walked to the bookstore . . .

. . . after stopping to play in a tree fort . . .

. . . and sliding down the banister at the Marriott Center.

The bookstore was swamped with alumni and their families, just like us. Karli knew this great kids' corner in the store where all the Denton monkeys could read books and play with puppets.

Eve read to Ellie . . .

. . . and Grandpa read to Annie.

Chick-Fil-A at the CougarEat then we walked to the steep hill by the library.

Up and down they went--for at least an hour. The weather was perfect, and the kids were happy. Why should we leave when those are the conditions?

Tucker challenged Lily to a race up the hill, and it was much closer than I thought it would be. He beat her by less than a second.

Nathan found leaves to share with Annie, and she obliged him by quickly putting them in her mouth.

That little Donut guy. He used to be the most easy going kid, but he's getting an attitude of his own, and he doesn't like most people at first. Lily would grab him and hold him down to smother him with kisses, and he would fight her every second. She didn't care.

Suddenly, the three littlest kids needed naps and began crying, and we knew we'd overstayed.

They were too tired to walk back to Tucker's apartment, but we only had Heidi's 7-seat car. In the end, all fourteen of us piled and squished and squirmed into the car (along with two strollers and a jumbo box of diapers) for the three-minute drive back to the other cars. Picture the clown car at the circus. That was us.

I was glad Hyrum left this new friend of his back in the grass at the library. I don't think there would have been room for him, too!

Little kids took quick naps while the big people (Hyrum and older) donned our new Cougar tshirts to wear to the game that evening.

Go Cougars!