Whenever Emma visits Utah, the very first place she wants to go is the Peppermint Place, a small candy store down in Alpine. My dad lets her have free run of the store to pick out whatever she wants. So today we bundled up the kids in heavy coats, loaded them in the car and sent them off with Grandpa.
After the Peppemint Place, my dad treated them to lunch at McDonalds and then took them along while he ran an errand up at the University of Utah. My dad is a professor there and is friendly with a lot of the football players. Many of them are or have been students in his class. Today he had to pick up some signed footballs from one of the players.
When he and the kids walked into the Utes' athletic training facility, most of the players were eating lunch. The first person they talked to was Brian Johnson, Utah's quarterback. He was super nice to the kids.
Next they chatted with Morgan Scalley, one of the Utah coaches. He started joking around with the kids and being really friendly with them. At this point, Emma who had been a little intimidated at first by these very large guys, started warming up. Boy, did she ever.
By the time Louie Sakoda, Terrel Cole and Mike Wright came over, Emma was feeling pretty confident. Confident enough to unzip her coat and rile up some Utes:
Yep, that's my little Texan. She walks into a Ute den and shows off her Texas pride.
Seriously though, I did not tell her to wear her Colt McCoy jersey. I didn't even know she was going to be hanging out with the Utah football team when I sent her off with my dad this morning.
But if I had known, burnt orange isn't the color I would have suggested she wear. Nope. I think I would have picked out something more in the neighborhood of royal blue. With a big beautiful Y in the middle.
Of course she might not have made it out alive with that on. So I guess burnt orange was the better choice after all.
P.S. As much as it pains me, I must give credit where credit is due. The Utah players were all very nice and friendly. Ouch.
This next picture was a nod to my parents, who are both Utes. I love them anyway.
And here's the final classic. The kids were foaming at the mouth when they saw this one.
Emma was pretty quick though on the comeback for the Darth Vader picture. After protesting up and down that this picture was NEVER in the movie, she finally said, "Well, that was when he turned back to the good side."
Oh yeah. You knew I'd find a way to work a picture of James Bond back onto my blog. Now I know you're thinking that tights are necessary for all of the pirouettes and grand jetes and that a suit just wouldn't translate to the stage. However, have you seen all of the butt Bond kicks while wearing these duds? There's some serious athleticism going on to rival any fancy ballet moves. And he gets it all done without any rips in his seams and while looking fabulous the whole time. 
