The Mountain (West Conference) is Calling and we Must Go

When you have a nephew who is a super star, playing college basketball, you get certain advantages.  Here's a story.
We drove from St. George to Logan--from baptism to basketball.  It was the last home game of the Utah State Aggies.  If the Aggies won, they would share the #1 seed in the Mountain West Conference.  We needed to be there.  Plus, we needed to know and understand what this "Spectrum Magic" was that was crowding my Twitter feed. 

As per "our style", we were running a bit late.  It was a sold out game, so we knew parking was going to be a beast.  Plus, by the time we walked the 55 miles from the first available parking spot, we'd miss the first half!  We didn't want that.   I had been praying the whole dive that we'd be able to find a spot up close

So, we drove to a parking lot next to the Spectrum with empty spots.  However, there was a guy blocking the driveway.  As we pulled up, he walked up to our car window and told us that the lot was reserved parking for patrons who donated big money to the school.  I told him that in a round about way, we donated to the school.  It wasn't a set dollar amount, but our donation came in the form of Justin Bean.  I explained that Justin was my nephew and I spent lots of time with him, over the years, playing with him, and almost raising him (I omitted the part about him living in Oklahoma and me in Idaho.  I didn't want to bore the man with the minor details.)  I told him that I was very supportive and adamant that he attend Utah State.  The guy seemed very pleased with my donation, because he let us in and we parked just a few feet from the building. (By the way, you're welcome USU Men's Hoops. Haha!)

The Magic in the Spectrum was all the hype.  The place was packed, and it was nuts.  So loud.  So fun.

After the Aggies took the victory, the crowd flooded the court and Justin was up crowd surfing.  I tried to tell everyone to put him down, that what they were doing was dangerous, but they didn't listen.  I just don't think they heard me. 

The best part of the whole night was when we went over to Jaxon (another nephew of mine) and Justin's apartment.  They just let my kids hang out with them.  They talked to them and made them feel pretty good about themselves.  We had pizza (Justin and his brother Jourdon went to pick it up, so obviously it was free.  *wink*wink).  Because it was well past our bedtime, we loaded up and headed home. 

Always a great time in Logan.

Now, onto March Madness.  Hooray!!

 Thanks again for the Tix JBB#12!