Rise and Shout!!

Tom and I drove down to Provo last weekend for the annual BYU Alumni Chapters Conference. We got there just in time for the Awards Banquet at the Hinckley Center. Our Boise Chapter was nominated for one of the awards but we really didn't think we had any chance of winning.  

 Here are the nominations:

Spirit of the Y – Outstanding Overall Chapter

• CO Denver
• GA Atlanta
• ID Boise

Connected for Good – Outstanding event supporting Students

• CA Ventura/Santa Barbara
• OH Cleveland
• OR Medford

Cougar Fan – Outstanding event that supports a BYU entity

• AZ Tucson
• CA Silicon Valley
• TX El Paso

Chapter Innovation – Outstanding New or Distinctive Event

• FL Tampa Bay
• NE Omaha
• TX Houston

Chapter Rejuvenation – Granted on occasion to recognize outstanding work reviving an inactive chapter to an active status

• UT St. George
• Washington DC 

We were greatly surprised to be announced as winner of the "Spirit of the Y" award for the outstanding overall chapter!
We received a banner with our chapter name that we can use at all our events

 

Plus we got this beautiful glass block engraved with our chapter name, award, and a Y 

 

They interviewed us and took a bunch of pictures which they say they are going to use in an upcoming issue of BYU Magazine. I should have asked for a copy of the picture, or had the photographer take one with my camera, but I was so pleasantly surprised I about forgot my own name :)

It is nice to be recognized after spending so much time on all our events and activities.

One of the benefits of going to Provo is getting to see our kids, so after the banquet we picked up Taylor and drove over to Whitney's house for a visit.

On Friday during our lunch hour we drove to Whitney's school, Spring Creek Elementary, and saw Ms. Morris in action.

Isn't she cute??!!

I love her bulletin board.  Sara helped her make all the minions this summer.

Whitney was teaching her students how to write a personal narrative so she had Tom tell one of his stories.  He is a great story teller and the kids loved it.

We had meetings all day on Friday at the Hinckley Center.

You can tell that the weather was less than ideal.

But it cleared up in time for the tailgate party behind the Alumni house. The tailgate party had a Hawaiian theme so we ate terriyaki chicken and pork. The sun came out, but it was still cold!

It was so fun being there with two of our cougars.

The Alumni Association gave us two tickets to the game and we had awesome seats on the second row..

We bought a $5 ticket for Whitney out front and since we only had two seats together, Tom was a good sport and sat by himself for the first half. Taylor got to sit by us during the 1st quarter until he got kicked out of his seat so he headed over to the student section.  Whitney sat with her friends during the 2nd half so Tom enjoyed our great seats.

It was a cold night, but BYU won so that made us happy!

Taylor had an intramural soccer game on Saturday morning, so we skipped out on one of our meetings and watched the match.

Taylor scored 3 goals and his team won 4-2.

It was a beautiful fall morning.

We hosted all the Boise area BYU students for a gathering at the Hinckley center at noon on Saturday.  We served free pizza and we had about 100 kids turn out.

I ordered 23 large pizzas and they were gone in about 40 minutes.

Tom gave out the prizes. He does such a good job of that!

We had a great weekend. We love BYU and the spirit that we feel there.

I'm thankful that we have the opportunity to give back with our time and treasure some of what BYU has given to us.

Go Cougars!!