Fall Firsts

 This past weekend was full of some fabulous fall firsts.  The kids were out of school on Friday and we started off the long weekend with the first snow!

 It was freezing but, of course, the kids just couldn't resist, so we bundled up and they headed out right in the middle of the storm.
At what age do you grow out of that desire to just lay your whole body down in the middle of the snow?

 The cold won out before the snowman was complete, but we definitely enjoyed our first snow.

 And along with the first snow, came the first hot cocoa of the season.  It was perfect.

 First thing Saturday morning we were off to Levi's First Wrestling Tournament!  Since the little league season hasn't really started yet, there weren't a lot of younger kids registered to wrestle.  Levi (like everyone in our family) is big for his age, and when we got to the tournament first thing Saturday morning, I couldn't find him anywhere in the bracket.  Well that's because he was bracketed with the SECOND GRADE!  He is in Kindergarten and just started wrestling halfway through the season last year. 

 As he was going out for his first match I felt like I was throwing him to the wolves.  It was brutal.  These kids had YEARS of experience on him.  He had only been pinned one other time ever going into this tournament, and he got pinned and in each of the matches at this tournament.  It was killer.  He was SO hard on himself, but I was so proud of him.  He didn't give up once, and fought through round after round getting himself out of some really technical holds. 

He walked away with the bronze medal.  Wrestling practice starts this week, and after the tournament, Levi is all revved up and ready to go.

 Our final first of the weekend was our First BYU Football Game!  Levi has turned into the #1 BYU fan and has begged to go to a game all season long.  Jeff finally scored tickets for the last home game of the season and we waited and waited for the great day to arrive.  Then when game time was posted at 8:10 PM we realized it was going to be a late, long night.  Then when the weather report came in and we realized it was going to be TWENTY degrees plus snow, we were really wondering what we were getting ourselves into.  Suddenly tickets to the last home BYU football game were becoming very plentiful as all sorts of season ticket holders were opting to enjoy the game on television from the comfort of their own homes.  Not us.

 We bundled in layers and layers and braved the snow-covered bleachers in the below-freezing temperatures.

 And it was worth every minute.  Levi was in awe.  By the time we left, he even had the fight song down.

His first BYU game was made complete with his first 'cougar tail' doughnut (thanks to Karson Morgan...) and the night ended up being a huge success.  Go Cougars!