Rise and Shout, the Cougars are Out...

I discovered something slightly embarrassing about myself last month...I am a BYU nut (a "Zoobie," if you will). When I was a student there (Class of '02, if you're curious), I would often see alumni & their families visiting campus (usually the Wilk), "oohing" and "aahing" and taking pictures of everything and buying up a bunch of souvenirs and pointing out every little thing on campus to their kids...

...and I would scoff at those people. "How sad...clinging to their lost youth," I'd think. "After I graduate, I'm not going to act like such a fangirl over the school I attended! I'm going to show some dignity. After all, it's just a few short years of my life I'm spending here...not much in the grand scheme of things." How cool, calm and collected I thought myself.

Oh, what a difference a few years away makes. I graduate. Nate graduates. We leave Utah. We start our life in AZ. We have kids. We "settle down" and have a happy, if somewhat unexciting life. And when I think back on my time at BYU (living on my own, with so many wonderful opportunities, great friends, wonderful professors, and fun times), I realize that it's okay to wax a little nostalgic about our college years. I was very blessed to attend college; it helped shape me into a better person and a (mostly) capable adult.

So...when it came time to visit the BYU campus with our kids, it only surprised me a little to see myself acting just like all those alumni I used to secretly mock. Growing older is a funny thing...

Now...onward to indoctrinate our kids!!!

One good thing about visiting campus as alumni...we got to park in Visitor Parking, right next to the Museum of Art! Yay...it's nice to get out of your car & walk right onto campus. We took a quick look back at the Bell Tower (I used to live quite close to it, up in the now-demolished Deseret Towers)...

Then it's time to cut through the Museum of Art. The main foyer still has that bizarro sculpture with sandstone on the bottoms and blue plastic "feathers" at the top. Yeah, I know...it's "art"...whatever. I still think it's goofy-looking.

Now here's something that's more relatable...especially given the company!!

After leaving the Museum of Art, we head right into the Harris Fine Arts Building, which was where I had many, many classes (as a journalism major and a music minor, I probably spent 2/3 of my time here). It's a pretty cool building, with a wide-open gallery area (somewhat blocked from view by Celeste's smiling mug...)

Walking south through campus, we run across yet more "art"--this time, it's the famous "Tree of Wisdom," just outside the Kimball Tower. It's been standing on campus (not always at its current location) since before I was born. Unfortunately, it's starting to look its age (just like me!!). The paint on a lot of the columns was peeling pretty badly. I hope someone will give it a facelift soon! Regardless, the girls had lots of fun "hiding" in the Tree of Wisdom's "trunk."

Next stop was close by--the Eyring Science Center. While certainly not a museum, the main entryway of the Science Center does have lots of neat hands-on physics experiments, and some pretty cool items on display...

...such as this giant geode the girls are admiring.

After a little more walking around campus, the girls started getting hungry. Nathan was off visiting one of his old professors, so I took the girls to one of my old haunts for lunch...the Cougareat, of course!

 

In this, however, I had some regret. Since this was an early July visit, we weren't the only people visiting campus. There were also THOUSANDS of youth there for EFY week--ugh! Needless to say, it was VERY crowded & noisy. No way was I ever as obnoxious as these teenagers, right? RIGHT?? Oh, well, we managed to find a table and get a bite to eat...

 

There was even a floor show included with my meal, since Lorelai & Celeste (completely unprompted), got out of their chairs, stood on one leg each, and then favored me with their rendition of "I Am A Child of God." Wow.

Then, of course, it was time for dessert! And what better place to get dessert than the BYU Creamery?

 

As you can see by the picture, someone was a little TOO anxious to get her "licks" in. I had chocolate-peanut-butter swirl, and it was dee-licious. All the flavors were wonderful, though--I should seriously consider mail-ordering a gallon or two of Creamery Ice Cream for my birthday.

Once reunited with Nate, we all headed for the BYU Bookstore, where we exposed ourselves as the starry-eyed alumni we are.

 

We window-shopped for a while, then scoured the souvenir shelves for lots of Cougar-themed mementos to take home.

 

The girls were very happy with their purchases. Celeste got her very own BYU mug...

 

...and Lorelai got a new T-shirt, which she proudly wore as soon as the tag came off...

 

Nate and I thought about buying shirts for ourselves, but refrained...this time! However, we did get some swag for the window of our minivan...

 

Well, now every random passerby will know which school our family supports!

By this time, the girls were getting cranky, so it was time to bid our alma mater farewell...

 

Who knows if our girls will end up in Provo someday? We hope so...but only time will tell. It was great to see campus again...it brought back many happy memories. Of parties on the quad...of friends far & near...of professors who inspired me to be better...of a testimony that really came into its own as I prepared to serve a mission...and more. Thanks BYU for all the great times! Soon after this, we headed back to our life in AZ. Hopefully another trip to Utah will come soon...thanks to all the friends & family we visited there for making our trip such a good one!