Wo, Wo, Wo To Any Team that a Walton Drives 900 Miles to Watch–For They Shall Be Cursed

 

It doesn’t matter how many times a BYU Team has beat their opponent in the past, if a Walton shows up having driven treacherous roads through snow and ice just to watch them, they are doomed to lose.

The friendly Meet-and-Greet that happens before the game starts.  They are playing the University of Santa Barbara, the Gauchos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least in volleyball, it is the best out of five games, and we did win one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, they were totally fun to watch, regardless, because the games went clear down to the wire, with the other team only winning by two points. 

The girls were watching the game  on TV at home and texting Jim throughout the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  You are looking at #9, Otavio Souza, #13, Robb Stowell, and #15, Taylor Sander.

I was given marching orders:  a list of players and their numbers to guide me in my picture taking attempts.  I never did figure out if the stars were related to how good they were or how good they looked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#15, Taylor Sander, is bumping the red, white and blue ball in the center there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously happy moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a mother won’t do for her adoring teen-age daughters—stand the majority of the game taking pictures and videos.  Volleyball sure didn’t attract this much attention in my day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just scored the winning point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found I just love watching kill shots and block, but only by our guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#17, Futi Tavana and #18 to the right – somehow suspended in the air.  What might he be doing?  I just noticed him there.

Nice kill shot by #15, Taylor Sander.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After only an hour or so, I figured out all by myself that he was giving signals for the next play.  Aren’t I smart?

 

#8, Joe Kauliakamoa giving more covert signals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BYU Scores!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were driving down the freeway from Provo to Salt Lake late Saturday night after the volleyball game when Jim got a call from his cousin, Dee Henrie.  Dee was visiting at Andy and Kathy’s in Sandy, and wanted to see Jim.  We were just coming up to their exit, so we popped on over to their house and had a great visit.  It had  been something like 28 years since we had seen Dee.  In fact, it was on one of our first dates and it happened to be to Dee’s own wedding in the Salt Lake Temple.  Jim’s Uncle Andy had called Jim’s dad Ken, (his brother) before the wedding and told him they needed to get to down to Provo, that Jim was holding hands with a redhead.  (This was news to his parents.) Andy then told them he wasn’t getting off the phone until they agreed to come to Dee’s wedding to see Jim.  They came without telling Jim, and the first time I met Jim’s parents ended up being quite a surprise to both of us in the waiting room of the Salt Lake Temple.  Jim leaned over to me and said, “Guess who you are going to meet?”  And there they were – with his Dad sporting a goatee as he readied for the beard-growing contest coming up soon at their Walton Family Reunion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andy felt no remorse in giving Jim and I a very hard time on our fourth date at his house, which for some reason, put me completely at ease.  This man was a completely unrelenting tease, but feistiness ran in my blood and I could tell we were kindred spirits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kathy has always been as sweet as Andy was ornery.  She was a role model for me back then as she was raising their seven children.  It’s always an adventure to visit with them both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We should’ve known better than to arrive only 30 minutes early to an Easter broadcast.  We didn’t have the best of seats, as you can tell, but the performance was everything we needed to fill our hearts and touch our spirits, regardless of where we were sitting.

I learned something new after the broadcast as the announcer talked to just those in the audience:  “Utah has four seasons:  Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction Zone.  That’s when orange vests and cones are blossoming everywhere.”  I could feel the truth of that in my bones.

My only “Sad” for Easter was leaving my scriptures in the Relief Society room and not realizing it until Sunday night as we were packing to leave for home the next morning at 4.  Even after dragging Jim’s Aunt Fern out of bed and trying to get in to the church with her key, we were out of luck as they had recently changed the building’s locks.

But, fortunately, someone there during the week turned in my scriptures to the Church and Family History Mission and the Assistant to the president actually did some detective work using Google, found my e-mail on a Roots Web genealogy website, took a chance that it was me since I mentioned that I was writing the e-mail from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and e-mailed me.  They are going to send me my scriptures.  So Happy Endings!  

And this is a very good place to end this series of VERY LONG BLOGS which have caused me no end of grief.