Football, Moving, & Fall...er, Fall-ing (oh MY!)

It's football season folks! Here we are in our awesome top of the stadium FREE seats! I emphasize the word "free" because we really do appreciate them! We sit among all of the other coaches and trainers from various teams who also get seats as a nice little perk of their jobs. Besides, walking up there is the best workout I get all week! This was at our first home game of the season, 3rd game overall.

It was BYU vs. Houston and was played on Septemebr 11th.

 Our awesome ROTC carried out the 

Mother-of-all-Flags and the players from each them helped hold it for the National Anthem.

Breath-taking.

My husband the coach may, or may not have been crying.

I love Cougar Stadium. I love the view. WE saw a lovely sunset that evening.

 (Yes, I know it's LaVell Edwards Stadium now. I am not big into name changes. It will ALWAYS be Cougar Stadium to me!!)

I got to participate in my first-EVER stadium card stunt during half-time. It was really fun! Notice the large instructions printed on the card. How could we fail?!

After a beautiful half-time show paying respect to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, we got our big moment. You will see us at the top of the second "W" in the white. Aren't we great?!
Wait for it...there are TWO card stunts!

We are so talented!

 A few days later on a Thursday morning, I went up to the airport and met a very early morning flight from San Diego. What a treat to have Diana and Lucas visit us for four short days on their way to their new home in Minnesota!! This little trooper was so tired after getting up at 5:00 am on the coast!

Nick and his father were driving the truck. Mike flew out from South Carolina to help. That's a nice Dad! They arrived in Utah a little bit after Diana and the boy did. They spent the night at Nick's Grandparent's home down the hill so there would be enough beds for everyone. They left early two days later and began their long, Lo-o-o-ng journey! They arrived after driving I think about 23 hours and went to work unpacking the truck and putting together the beds so that all would be ready for Nick's little family to arrive. They deserve a medal!

We were the fortunate ones who got to enjoy a few more days with the young Master and his Mom!

This has become a standard thing for Pa and Lucas. Lucas asks for a "Choo Choo" and Pa finds a video on his iPad. There are some pretty awesome train videos out there! They boy could do this alllll day! What Pa? You have a Priesthood lesson to prepare? Pshhh! What's more important?

Anything the kid needed, his Aunties and Uncle were right there!

Here's Auntie Rachel making her famous "Unicorn Poop" cookies. You read that right.

I grabbed these pictures from the web. Someone in the house posted a picture that night but I can't find it.

They're just sugar cookies. No Unicorns were squeezed!

Does your Gramma have a big Piggy Bank? She should!

When someone says "Feed the Pig" Mr. Lucas tries, but that Piggie just won't eat!

"Gramma says you do it THIS way."

He's got a very good eye for this!

We took Lucas to "Cookie Cutters" for a trim. He chose the pink car this time!

One day Momma went to lunch with her BFF Whitney. Gramma and Lucas went outside to enjoy the afternoon. Pa and Gramma have a really fun neighbor. Lucas told me all about the "poy-pul" pumpkin and asked to go see the others.

Then he decided Pa's yard needed a trim!

Gramma grew some zinnias this year.  See that dead bush in the background? Pa and Uncle Richard are pulling it out this weekend...they don't know this yet!

"BUS!!" We had a great time watching the school bus, a big UPS truck and lots of cars go by.

Friends since they were both the new girls on the first day of 8th grade. Love Whitney so much!! She now drives a mini-van because she's the mother of twins Lucy and Eloise, and sweet baby Ava!

I took the gang down to Provo to enjoy some Sodalicious, ON ME! 

(Those $100 of gift certificates are awesome!)

Lucas gave me a flower!

Auntie Britt came over from Google Fiber to join us.

It was a gorgeous day but we were racing a thunderstorm!!

Story time on the last night before they left. We all wanted him to stay up just a bit longer.

Nick, Diana, & Lucas have been in Minnesota for just over a month now. Somehow I miss them more knowing they are just that much farther away. They are doing well and love exploring their new home. If you want to follow their blog, the link is off to the right. She makes some fun observations on the difference between living in Utah vs. San Diego vs. Minnesota. Kinda hilarious! I'm not sure if she's private anymore but she welcomes friendly readers. If you need an invite you can send me an email and I'll send you hers. mloose79@gmail.com

It's autumn now at the Little House on the Corner. Sigh. I always mourn summer's passing for about a week. Not because I hate fall, but because I LOATHE winter!!

See those feet? They are wearing their brand new NIKE Cross Trainers. I was so enjoying them and how they feel. This is just minutes before they tripped on uneven sidewalk and I fell forward, hitting the sidewalk hard on my left chest area. Yep. Grace. I dislocated a few ribs and spent the next week in a Lortab induced state of drowsy pain! I'm healing now and dealing with the fact that winter is just around the corner. Sigh.

Next Time? ROLLER DERBY!!

World Record! Part 2

On Saturday afternoon, September 12th we drove to Provo to participate in "Passport to Provo", an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest scavenger hunt...ever! The old record was set by the University of Chicago in 2011 at 924 participants. There had been plenty of publicity leading up to the big day. Brittany nervously watched the sign-up numbers climb as the weeks went by. A day or so before the event there were over 1,000 people signed up. They would all need to come that day AND complete the scavenger hunt to break the record. Then, with TV appearances, radio spots, and a huge announcement to over 60,000 fans at the BYU football game the previous Saturday, the website showed ever increasing numbers. Brittany and her co-workers were happy to see that on the night of September 11th nearly 3,000 participants had registered! Oh, how this family had prayed for the event to be a big success! It was a Thank You party for the community. The budget was large, and there was no profit to be made. For Miss Event Planner's mind to be at ease it had to succeed!

When we arrived, we had pre-registered and Dee had picked up our packet the day before so we got to go through an express check-in. I am so glad because for a community that runs on Mormon Standard Time, everyone showed up within 30 minutes of start time. There were literally thousands of people! It thrilled my heart to see the turn-out and know how relieved our girl must be! There were SO many people, in fact, that the start time had to be put back to 1:30 instead of 1:00. Each team was given a map, a list of rules, and a Passport booklet full of tasks to complete. We were also given wrist bands. It was so well organized! They shuttled us up one escalator to the 3rd floor of the Utah Valley Convention Center to check in. Then we were sent down another set of escalators and had to pass by the official representative from Guinness. She literally counted each person with a handheld clicker! We all went outside to await the start. While we waited we planned out our first few tasks.We had to look for a dolphin and talk like a dolphin to the Google Fiber volunteer who, in turn, stamped our passport. That one was easy! The building across the street has an underwater mural with dolphins on it. At the starting signal given by Mayor Curtis everyone took off. The poor volunteer was literally bombarded by "Flipper" voices. It was kind of hilarious!

As we headed north to our next task I was overwhelmed by what I saw. There were hundreds of people of all ages running, biking, scooter-ing, carpooling, and skate boarding to get around. All were excited and having a great time! The tasks were divided up into categories. To quote the event website:

Downtown Culture – Tasks in this category will include searching for nostalgic items downtown, wall murals and paintings, Covey Center for the arts, getting to know your heritage, and more!

Quirky and Fun – This category will include fun, off-the-wall tasks like taking pictures at Provo landmarks, perform on stage, talk to animals, bust a move, or look for the Provo Sasquatch!

Outdoor and Adventure – Get ready to explore the outdoors! Tasks in this category include playing games, getting a little wet, playing at the park, riding a bike, etc..

Local Business – Check out downtown Provo’s businesses and explore our restaurants and shops. This category will give you the opportunity to sample some food, learn about fiber, read a book, and more!

We did things like lip-synching onstage at Velour, a local club (I play a mean air guitar!).
We picked up trash at North Park, and while there Richard slid down a slide while saying "Weeeee!" (B's personal favorite task). We explored paintings at a downtown art gallery looking for a fish, posed for a passport photo at Allen's Camera. Sampled yummy food at little restaurants I never knew were there, posed by a Provo firetruck, sampled a new drink mix at Sodalicious and suggested names for it, and petted puppies up for adoption at Pioneer Park. While there we frolicked through the splash pad (the volunteer insisted upon frolicking as that is how the task was worded!)


A few things I was really impressed with were hearing the number of people saying what I myself was thinking, "I never knew this was here. I'm coming back for sure!" The community service tasks were awesome. We bought a can of food at a local grocer and donated it to the Food Bank, we looked at the United Way booth and learned how we could volunteer, and the Red Cross had a sign-up for blood donations.

We survived our hunt in the heat of the day and returned to the convention center where we went through a line and one-at-a-time had our wrist bands cut of and placed in a large container. Our passports were checked for all of the appropriate number of stamps in each category and then we could go into a large room and gather up free stuff for participating. The most popular items were this Provo Rocks t-shirt featuring Provo's own Ryan Innes from TV's "The Voice".

Everyone got a cool Google Fiber shirt featuring Provo's "Silcone Slopes" too!

Dee got to help count the wrist bands. The lady in the white shirt was our official Guinness judge. She wouldn't share with the others how many she counted in her group, to keep it a secret until the announcement.

As a family we pitched in and helped pass out the t-shirts as volunteers for the rest of the afternoon. People were floored that they got 2 shirts, "Really? We just came out for the record and to have fun!" It was a nice way to end the afternoon. Everyone was invited back to the "After Party" that night featuring  Ryan Innes, BBoy Federation, & local DJ "Skratchmo. 

And did we break the record? You had better believe it! The old record was 924 and Provo produced 2079 participants who finished the hunt! WAHOO!!!

The Mayor let Brittany's boss know that he has never seen such an impact-ful event or gathering EVER in downtown. He still hears from businesses saying how their traffic has increased and how good it was for downtown in general. The United Way had a record number of volunteers sign up and guess what? Most of them showed up on their volunteer days. Everyone wants to do it again next year to which Britt and her team might reply, "We need about a week's worth of sleep...then, maybe!"

Below is a link to the official video which shows some of the tasks I described and many that I didn't. A lot of the tasks involved posting a photo of your group doing the task on Instagram with the hashtag #passporttoprovo. It is so fun to search that hashtag on IG and just see all of the fun people were having!

Click on this link! It gave us all goosebumps and made Brittany cry! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mHdN1IsWFA

I wondered what Allen's Camera and Sound might do with all of those passport photos they took that day. You can stop by their downtown shop and see a huge 40 x 60 poster in their window. We have yet to find ourselves! Somewhere in the blue...

We are so proud of the Google Fiber team for their hard work and for giving back to the community that has treated them well.

 Good job everyone!!

World Record! Part One

My daughter has an awesome job. It's awesome big, awesome fun, awesome responsible, awesome scary, and awesome tiring. (No grammar Nazis please!) She is an Event Manager for Google Fiber in Provo and she has helped put out the word about their product through fun events.  Awhile back she was given the charge to plan a big "Thank You" party for the City of Provo, from Google Fiber to thank them for the great reception GF has received in the city. She talked about this with me and we tossed around a few ideas. Many days later she said, "what do you think about a city-wide scavenger hunt? I pictured hundreds of Provonians (said tongue-in-cheek) canvasing neighborhoods knocking on doors asking for green rubber bands and bent paper clips. She said, "Oh no, Mom. It will be in the downtown area and I'm trying to come up with a way to get the local businesses involved. It'll be a way to help people get to know their city better. "Oh!", I thought. "That is HUGE."  "Yes," she answered. "We're going to break the Guiness Book of World Records' record for the largest scavenger hunt...ever. It'll end with a big concert/party for the participants." Yep, awesome!

The next task was what to call it? Again, we sat around the kitchen table throwing around names like "Finding Provo", and such. She told me later, after the name was decided upon, that she woke up one morning with the thought "Passport to Provo" in her mind. Also in her pretty head were all of the details in rough form. Every group would get a passport filled with various tasks that local businesses had agreed to participate in. Complete the right amount, be the first ones back, and win a huge prize! That sounded fun and incredibly hard to organize, but we are talking about Brittany, here! She had lots of help from others at work and together they contacted, I don't know how many businesses within the perimeter they set, got the United Way of Provo involved, along with the Downtown Provo Alliance. She worked several 60+ hour weeks and was stating to look awesome worn-out! (I know, I know, it should say awesome-ly...I don't care!)

At last everything was set, now it was time to advertise and get people to actually sign up, not just to participate in the hunt, but she also needed tons of volunteers to help pull this off! Let's get some promotional photos taken to put up around town and to use for the website. OK, how about an awesome Provo photographer like Justin Hackworth? No problem! Let's get some local celebrities to come be in the photos...no problem! Provo people are pretty awesome! Let's see....who came?

OK, I do not profess to know all of these people and some of them are from Google Fiber, having fun, you know? Heck, I'd be in there with Donny too if I had the chance! See that cute blonde peeking in on the left? That's Mindy Gledhill, a gal with an angelic voice whose songs I love. She just left this morning on a cross-country tour in her new vintage tour bus. My darling girl Brittany Loose is third in from the left on the second row. Love her! Back row center...the guy looking up to heaven, is Kevin Auernig owner of Sodalicious in Provo. (I'll take a Coke Zero with a little cherry and cream, please!)  Right in front of him is infamous Provo blogger Courtney Clark Kendrick or "CJane" who was having a coronary over being in the same room as a certain handsome pop star! "You got Donny Osmond?!" She squeaked at Brittany? "WHO GETS DONNY OSMOND?!" Well, my daughter and Google Fiber do! Right next to her is Jeremy Warner of KBYU's "Studio C" fame. That show has such a cult following. It's so funny! On the far right, second row is Provo Mayor John Curtis in the checked shirt. Provo loves their mayor, yes they do! He was so supportive of Brittany and her efforts. Right in front of Mayor Curtis is famous singer from TV's "The Voice" Ryan Innes. I voted for him and I love his voice! Now, next to Mr. Osmond you will notice a rather furry guy in a BYU football jersey? That would be none other than Cosmo Cougar, famed BYU mascot and overall great cat. The fact that Britt was anywhere near this mascot speaks for how seriously she takes her job. Usually mascots send her into a shivering, huddled mass in a corner. Tears are usually involved. Now shall we address the elephant in the room? My teen idol, I was going to marry him, he's still so cute...Donny! I want to say that all of these people came free of charge because they love their city. Donny was very nice and took time afterward to talk to people and take photos with them. He asked Brittany how else he could help and how the hunt would work. He said, "I have an army, you know!" Yes, there are a lot of Osmonds around here.

At one point during the shoot she sent a few pictures via text to me. I cried. It was my inner 13-year-old coming out. I would never have dreamed in 1972 that my idol would have his arm around my own daughter some day!

"Look who I'm with Mom!"  She told Donny, "This one's for my Mom", so that's him saying Hi to me, I'm sure!

She hates this picture and I will be in trouble for sharing but they just look like they are having so much fun!

They got one of the Mayor kissing a baby. Cosmo is so touched!

 Rockin' out with the gang. Go Mindy!

 Oh yeah.

Oh! Here's one of someone taking the photo that Britt sent to me. Cool!

Look at CJane being so adorably coy, and Mindy's still dancing!

So, the publicity was set in motion, now all that was left was to get nearly 1,000 people to show up!

Daunting? Yes.

Were there worries?

Yes!

Were they needless?

YES!

Next time I'll share with you some fun photos from our amazing World Record-Breaking day!