You can't win 'em all...

Megan surprised me with U2 tickets for my birthday back in June. We attended the concert in Vegas a few weeks back. The week of the concert, I learned that the BYU-TCU football game was selected as the site for ESPN College Gameday...a big deal if you are a college football fan, let alone a BYU football fanatic. So, the dream weekend was set up nicely: drive to Vegas Friday morning, watch U2, leave concert and drive through the night back to Provo, watch College Gameday live in Provo, get some shut-eye for a few hours, watch BYU-TCU live at Lavell Edwards Stadium Saturday night.

Meg and I joined brothers Chris and Mike, and sister in law Kelly for the drive down to Vegas Friday. We made good time, walked the strip for an hour and a half, and headed to the concert. All pictures shown were taken by my brother Matt and his wife Kim, whom we met at the concert.

The concert was phenomenal...from the stage to the song selection and performance itself, I was impressed by the whole thing. Attending a U2 concert was on the lifetime priority checklist...I guess that means I am that much closer to death. No worries. I've amended the lifetime priority checklist to include attending another u2 concert prior to kicking the bucket. I feel young again.

Proof that Megan, myself, and Chris attended the concert...
Our group headed out just after midnight from the concert headed back to Provo. We pulled in just in time to get in to the main area for College Gameday and to meet up with some very good friends and fellow cougar fans.



I was feeling so good, I and the rest of the group befriended some fans from the opposition.Following Gameday, we followed our appetite for some breakfast at Village Inn in Orem...a favorite spot for breakfast back in the day when I was a student at the Y. There, our group continued to relish in the concert and in attending Gameday, when the man, the legend, the myth--Lavell Edwards himself--walked into the establishment. While I sat in revered silence, Megan joined another in our group in spontaneous applause. Somewhat amused, somewhat not surprised, Lavell walked over to our table where we greeted him...I still sat in mostly revered silence. When he was at the point of leaving our company, I mustered some courage and felt it necessary to tell the coach that there was a golden retriever in Jerome, ID named after him. Lavell, the coach, laughed at the thought of Lavell, the dog. He told me that he had had people tell him they named their kid after him, but never a dog. Maybe I should be embarrassed that I have named my dog after the legendary coach Edwards...but the fact that I may be the first to bestow such an honor on a canine is somehow satisfying, like my lifetime obsession with cougar football is somehow justified. Of course I am kidding...sort of.

Could this weekend possibly get any better? Apparently not. The cougars were trounced that night on their home field by the TCU Horned Frogs, 38-7.


So, lesson(s) learned: You are only as old as you think you are sometimes. Life is good...even better when you have loved ones to share it with. And even when your alma mater's football team gets trounced on their home field.