Utah State vs BYU

David's birthday is coming up. (In fact, it is tomorrow! Yay!) For the last month I have been trying to find the perfect combination of presents, activities, and birthday fun. Mind you, our budget for each others birthdays is only $50. It's hard to find multiple presents that are really meaningful and fun for $50. (Of course it's possible, but it's a challenge.) So, I've been thinking about it alot. I really wanted to be able to get David tickets to a Utah State game in Logan. (Either Football or Basketball) But, I knew that if that is what I decided to get, that is pretty much all I would be able to get. Then, miraculously - towards the end of September, I was blog stalking several friends and I came across a friend, Jena, who was doing a giveaway for BYU football tickets! We like BYU and cheer for them often. I thought to myself that if I won, this could be the perfect way to get David some sports tickets without having to break my birthday budget! There was even a game for October 12th (or 13th, I don't remember now) - so I could give him the tickets on the 11th and then we could go to the game for his birthday. I completed all of the requirements to enter the contest. (Including "liking" BYU Football on Facebook, for which I received some good natured jibes from fellow Aggie fans. {For example: "Shantel liked BYU Football." Oh dear Shan. What has happened?" - Patrick Stone}.) But I figured that it was worth the chance at winning the tickets.

I checked back the day that the tickets were announced - and to my dismay I had not won. Bummer. But oh well, it was a long shot and who ever really wins things on blogs anyway? But then, later that day I got a message on my Facebook account from my friend to check my email! Turns out, she had chosen two winners and I was the second! I can not possibly tell you just how excited I was at that moment in time. David was sitting on the couch and I was at the computer in the kitchen and it took every ounce of control not to stand up and start cheering as I danced around the table. Seriously. I was thrilled. The best part is that I got to choose which game we wanted to go to. The next morning as David was getting ready I casually mentioned that I heard that Utah State was playing BYU soon. I then asked (very nonchalantly) if he would rather go to that game or another BYU football game if we ever decided to get tickets. (We had talked a couple of times about maybe getting tickets to go down there and watch a game.) He said that he would rather go to the USU game, of course. That sealed the deal and I immediately emailed my request.

The tickets arrived within days and I then had to figure out how to give them to David - because the game was almost a full two weeks before his birthday. So I hatched a grand plan. When David got home from work that day I had a wrapped present sitting on the coffee table waiting for him. His birthday was still 3 weeks away and so I teased him that I was going to make him wait for his birthday, I just wanted to build the suspense. That night we went over to Wendy and Sams to watch the BYU game with them, Amy, and Bruce. Both Wendy and Amy already knew about the tickets (because I was so excited I couldn't contain it, and I told pretty much everyone else in an attempt to NOT explode with excitement and tell David) but David had no clue. A couple of times the USU BYU game was mentioned and David said that we would have to find a place to watch the game. I was pinching my lips together so that my huge grin wouldn't give me away.


Later that night, after we played games and were getting ready for bed... David teased me that he was going to open his present early. I said, "Well.. I guess you could open it tonight if you wanted." He was surprised and said, "Really?" Then I just couldn't contain my excitement anymore and said "Yes! Open it!" I flip flopped a couple of times while he was getting ready to take the ribbon off. "No, maybe you should wait. Yes, open it right now! I don't know. You can choose." I hadn't decided whether I should wait until the game was a little closer, but I didn't want him making plans with someone to watch the game - so I decided the sooner the better. As he was opening the gift, I was giggling like a maniac. I was just SO excited.

My giggling flew out of control when he finally opened his present and all there was was a little bag of candy corn. Now, you have to understand. David loves candy corn. So at this point, he thought "Wow, my wife is so crazy - she really is just excited to give me a bag of candy corn." (Don't mind the BYU shirt, like I said before - we had just gotten home from watching a BYU game with his family.) 

 (This is another picture I took, hiding the BYU logo.) 

And then... "What is this? What is inside...?"

  I wasn't going to tell him about the tickets until he saw them on his own. I was hoping that he would notice them, but I was prepared to wait until the next day when he finally opened the bag. Luckily I didn't have to wait that long. He saw the tickets. As soon as he realized what they were he was so excited as well! He immediately wanted to change out of his BYU shirt and into a USU one. 

I was so glad that he was so excited. We looked forward to the game all week! When Friday rolled around, we couldn't wait till game time. Even Lydia got in on the Aggie action by cheering on her favorite team in the only way she knew how. (Bow and onsie are compliments of my sweet friend Kate who is a fellow Aggie in our ward down here. I LOVE them!)

 My wonderful sister Melissa was kind enough to come up and watch Lydia for us. I was a little nervous, because I was leaving her for the longest that i've ever left her before. In fact, I was gone for almost twice as long. (Usually I'm not gone for more than 3 1/2 hours and we were gone for almost seven!) We left just after six in order to beat the traffic and luckily made it to the game in pretty good time. Here we are - excited to be at the game and cheering on our Aggies! 

We had a great time at the game. We ended up sitting by some really nice BYU fans. I was grateful that they were nice and we had a good time chatting with them. For the sake of this post - we are going to pretend that Utah State won. Because that is the only thing that kept this night from being absolutely perfect!  So yay! Go-team-go!

I'm so grateful that we won these tickets. We never would have been able to afford them otherwise. (We went online to check and our tickets were $80 a piece.) It was such a great way to kick off David's birthday celebrations. I love my David, and I love how much he loves Utah State. (And BYU, when they aren't playing USU.) 

Happy Birthday David!