All American

The Friday before Labor Day Will and I went to the mall to get some new outfits for school. I gotta look professional so the high schoolers don't confuse me for one of their own and Will needed some crazy new ties to impress the 5th graders he's working with this semester. Then we stopped for dinner at Chili's.

Will asked for a four-seater booth rather than a two-seater, claiming that he wanted more room on his side of the table. I should have known better.

Just a few minutes after we were seated and we were just chatting, I heard someone next to our table ask "Excuse me, do you have the time?" I thought to myself, as I turned to face them, no one says that except my mother. Who should be standing there--but Mom and Dad!

I cannot lie. I bawled. Right in the middle of Chili's. My parents had drove from Wisconsin to Virginia to surprise me for the weekend. They had been in cahoots with Will for months and I never suspected a thing.

But the surprises did not end there. That night we were instructed to be ready to go very early the next morning. On Saturday, my parents picked us up and we drove several hours to Charlottesville. Dad wanted to see Monticello and the BYU v. UVA game, and I just so happened to be in the same state. Might as well stop by to see me.

Thomas Jefferson was a fascinating man and his house is just as interesting. Custom clocks and rooms built only to look pretty from the outside. There were thousands of BYU fans running around Monticello. The two passions of Mormons? Founding fathers and BYU football.

The famous Round Room. Jefferson didn't really have a purpose for this room, but it creates the iconic look outside.

The game had a severe weather delay because of lightening after the first quarter, and there was a ton of rain. It was very exciting after the lightening cleared out but ended in heartbreak for about 1/5th of the stadium. Seriously--BYU took up 1/5th to 1/4th of the stadium. We could easily drown out the UVA crowd. I'm a little bummed that the rain delay had the opposite effect on BYU this past weekend, rather than the game we attended, but it was still a good game. And UVA fans are so classy. Shirts and ties and sundresses. Cavaliers and horses. Shout and Roar!

Will was sneaky and packed my BYU t-shirts so I got to have my pick once I found out we were going to the game! He chose to wear his JMU shirt rather than a VT shirt, so as not to upset the UVA fans.

It was an All American weekend. Family, food, founding fathers, and football.

Theme Song: Good Old Song, UVA Marching Band