Painful...

Last Thursday night, BYU played TCU in football. I would imagine it was a painful game to watch on TV, but think of how painful it was to go to! Robert and I got tickets to the game a few months ago. We had been so excited. The Coogs had been playing so well. We knew TCU would be a challenge, but we did not know that it would be such impossible to keep it together. Daniel and Carol drove all the way from Tuscon to see the game- a 12 hour drive! Dan and Jane were supposed to fly in Thursday afternoon- but Dan's ticket apparently was cancelled and so they had to catch the next flight which put them at the stadium to see the end of the 3rd quarter and all of the 4th quarter! You will notice the forced smiles in the pictures. It was everything I could do- as the photographer- to get them to look at me! Although everyone came for the game, we had a nice weekend together.

Johnny Fishing

In July, the Madsen boys all went to Strawberry Reservoir to go fishing. This is a video of Johnny with a fish. It was a fun trip for the boys. They pulled in many more than Robert and I did when we went earlier in the summer.

Homecoming Mums

In Texas there a tradition to get (or make) mums for the homecoming football game. Both boys and girls were them. Girls pin their mums to their chest, while boys put their mum to their arm. Rob and I had seen these mums at the grocery store, and not knowing what they were inquired about them. We thought, at first, that they were used to put around a horses neck when they win a contest. Rob and I went to the homecoming game last Friday. I couldn't help snapping pictures of girls wearing their mums. They look so silly to me! The homecoming game was unreal. Football is huge here! The game was played at Pizza Hut Park (home of the FC Dallas MLS team). The football game has instant replay on the 2 big screens! The band at half time was really good. They displayed many different formations. The game was fun, even though our team lost. Maybe schools in Utah should start the mum tradition! :D

Reel Mower

Since moving to Texas we have had to purchase a lawn mower. Our yard is nice, but it is not big....so we decided to go with a mower that requires no gas or electricity! We have a wonderful reel mower. It works great. After Dan B. heard of our purchase, he raised a concern about if we had a bag to catch the grass. Rest assured Dan, we have bought a bag! Our little lawn is flourishing under our care.

Rabbits!

The biggest surprises here in Texas are the rabbits! These cottontails are all over. We have one that lives in our front yard, by the tree. Robert used to see Hopper every morning when he went to get the mail. When I go running through the neighborhood, I always see at least 5 rabbits- usually more! What a fun surprise!

Christmas Trees!

Each year for Christmas, Rob and I get a tree permit, drive up into the mountain and cut down a tree to decorate! It has been a great tradition. The first year, we got the beauty here on the right. It was a nice little tree, providing weeks of Christmas fun. The nest year we decided to step up the ante. We went and chopped down a REAL tree! We went on a snowy day (it was the same day that BYU played Michigan in basketball at the Delta center). We had Old Blue- a trusty hunting truck in the Madsen family- with us, a 4-wheeler, chain saw, rope, and our good friend, Devin (who also has his tree permit). We start up the canyon, pressing on through the snow. We find our turn-off and start up the mountain to find the perfect trees. There are not very many people up on the mountain as there is about a foot and a half of freshly fallen snow (i.e. powder!). We eventually park Old Blue on the mountain and get the 4-wheeler out. We all load up on the 4-wheeler: 3 adults, a chain saw and the rope. As we start climbing up the mountain, we realize that the 4-wheeler is leaking coolant! As we don't want the 4-wheeler to overheat, we come up with the idea of letting Rob pack the snow by going back and forth up the mountain. Although this is a great idea, it didn't work! We end up hiking up the mountain and striking gold. Robert saw the tree in the distance- about 200 yards away. Devin's wasn't far from it. We hiked down the valley and up onto the opposite mountain face. It was perfect! We then had to hike back to the trail to get our chainsaw. Back up the other side to cut down the trees. Then we roped up the trees and slid them down the mountain. Up the other side- twice- to carry both trees up. Next we strapped the trees to the 4-wheeler, put the chain saw on, and somehow managed to find a place for the 3 of us to sit down! We miraculously made it down the mountain to Old Blue. We unloaded the trees, loaded the 4-wheeler onto the truck, strapped the trees onto the truck, and got into Old Blue. As luck would have it, Old Blue was stuck in a rut! We tried pushing and pulling the truck free. We found rocks (in a nearby river) to put under the tires, but the truck was stuck fast. An hour later a jeep comes up the trail looking for stranded individuals (such as ourselves). He hooked up his wench and drug us out of the rut and onto the trail. What an adventure! When we finally got the tree into our home we realized how BIG it was! We laughed and laughed as we set it up. It is a tree to remember! We are a bit worried about how we are going to continue our tradition of cutting down a mountain tree here in Texas. There aren't too many mountains here...

Fishing at Strawberry

Before we left Utah, Robert and I went on a fishing trip to Strawberry Lake. It was so much fun! We had never been camping before. We got there on a Friday night. We found a nice campsite and set up the tent (thanks Mark for letting us use it). We then went to the lake to fish off the shore. The fish taunted us. They kept jumping and eating insects, but they never bit our bait. We went back to camp, defeated. We started up a fire to cook our tin foil dinner. I had made two, but they were so large we decided to just take one and share it. While we waited for the dinner to cook we put a movie on (yes, we had our laptops with us). We had rented the movie UHF, a hilarious movie with Weird Al. I have never seen Robert laugh so hard. He has a lot of childhood memories with it. He quoted half the movie and told me how he used different parts in assemblies when he was in high school. Each time I would get up to get something, Robert would stop me and say, "You have to see this part. It is so funny!" We laughed and laughed. The next morning we got up early. We had rented a little boat to troll with. We found a shore and started trolling back and forth. Finally I felt a bite! I yelled out, "I have a bite!" just as Robert said excitedly, "I have a bite!" We looked at each other curiously and started to reel in our line. After we both felt the line "jump" at the same time a second time, we started having our doubts that we had actually caught a fish. Much to our dismay, our lines had been tangled together. Robert got started at untangling the line. Eventually the lines were straightened out. I reeled in Robert's line and then started pulling mine in. Much to our surprise, I had a fish on! I reeled in the first fish of the day! It was a good looking fish. We continued fishing for a couple more hours, catching 4 fish total for the day. It was great fun. Robert and I went home smelly and tired, but satisfied with our fishing trip.