Football and fun

Joining Jon’s family was quite easy, until the culture shock of football season began. Memories of sports for me involved trying to get my dad’s attention to come kill a spider, but I was made to wait until half-time. My brothers all knew each team and specific players, and we still have a good time teasing Dave about the Dolphins. I had to give Mike and Dave credit though for making a pilgrimage to baseball stadiums of legend and hitting spring training several years in a row just to see the new guys heading up to the majors. But, aside from knowing not to interrupt or realizing that I really didn’t care about those specific players was about all the involvement that I could muster as a girl. Books and boys and bands were much more fun and important to me.
The Woodbury’s though…Having been so involved with U of U sports for so many decades, it was inevitable that attendance at sporting events be mandatory for the entire family. At first I was nervous and Jon felt badly that I didn’t just love football. He looked at me with such anticipation in his face after my first game because I’d sat in the stands with all the rabid fans and watched the action. You could see the disappointment when I confessed that I didn’t think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sorry, honey! I’ve actually napped at sporting events before…I’m just not a sporty kind of girl. Never have been, and I can’t promise that I ever will be…BUT!…I did have the pleasure of spending time with family, and that was always fun…even if I still don’t fully understand the game. It was quite a struggle for him to think that I was using that ticket and sitting in that seat when I didn’t have that deep and abiding love of the game…someone else that dreamed of being at those games deserved the location that my under-appreciative behind was taking up…but he also couldn’t think of letting me stay home where I never would learn to love the game! What a dilemma!
It’s been three football seasons now since I married into the family, and I’m getting better! I understand a few more terms now. I know a couple of the players names. I even got teary when they won that final game against their ultimate rival, BYU, and secured a perfect season with no losses. I’ve realized, that there are some good times to be had at the stadium, and that’s a really good start. It was at a football game that I was able to teach young Emma how to play Sudoku. She picked it up perfectly and quickly, and made us all giggle that year when she pronounced it as something that she was thankful for around the Thanksgiving Day Table. It was at a football game that I learned the college fight song and now I find myself saying, “Ki-yi!” now and then for no apparent reason. (What does that mean, anyway?) And at every game I enjoy several hours at a stretch to just spend time, chatting or not chatting, with the ladies of the clan while the men are up in the booth keeping stats for the crew. Again, even if I don’t fully understand the game yet, and don’t show the inclination to dive in and memorize it all right now, I get the feeling that it is something that I will learn little by little as the years go by…and I’m okay with that.
More importantly, I’ve learned that Hannah will have no choice in the matter. He he he. Hannah went with us to every game this year. She braved the cold and suffered through the annoyance of staying on mommies lap to keep out of the snow at our feet. She even slept through a couple of amazing victories, though I’m sure it will be impossible to repeat next year when she’ll be walking all over our section. Hannah doesn’t cry anymore when the crowd yells, and she even loves to sit on daddy’s lap while he plays EA Sports U of U football on the Nintendo. If he is really into the game and she doesn’t sit on his lap, Hannah sits next to Jon and plays with her own controller. Daddy hasn’t given up on Mommy loving the game yet, but he’s carefully and calmly molding Hannah into a Utah fan from her very start.

Video proof of the fun.

~ by bylorena on December 15, 2008.