an historic night at the MC...

what a night!!!

i've been excited all month for this one and it did not disappoint. jimmer went off for 43 points and jackson emery held their leading scorer d.j. gay (30+ ppg in his last two) to 0-7 from the field and 0-5 from behind the arc.

the place was louder than i've ever heard. the fans knew how big this game was and they were willing this team to win. it seemed every time jimmer crossed midcourt someone was yelling for him to shoot it.

michael, amy and i had a 'nice fun day'.


the night started with pizza and poster creation. we entered the marriott center at 6:30pm as the doors opened to the public for the 8:15pm tip.

michael was loving the warmup period.


michael counted every shot jimmer took from the moment we came out, and while we were watching michael counted 209 points made..:)

and what a treat to have mom with us. she's always spicing things up with her presence...



the crowd rushed the court and michael could not be held back. it was fun to mingle with players etc and before you knew it we were on TV!

thank you cougars for a spectacular night. a meeting of two top 10 teams in provo was all it had been billed. we won't remember this night soon and i made a little video to commemorate..:)

biggest game in the state...ever.

michael, amy and i are going to a game together. not just any game. the game.

i grew up going to BYU games with my dad. his father has had season tickets to BYU football and basketball games for like 50 years (or so.) my pops will be at a young men's activity tomorrow and offered his tickets in the lower bowl to michael and me. however, when my aunt and uncle (who sit next to pops) offered to take granpa anywhere he wanted with them as chauffeur he said, "I'd like to see BYU v SDSU." it was a no-brainer--he should have our seats. these have been his seats for 50 years (or so) afterall. i moved quickly and purchased some bench seats soon thereafter. so we're set!

byu has an RPI of #1 in one of the big three national RPI rankings. (for those of you who don't know, RPI is a rank of the strength of a team's schedule.) this means that BYU has played--according to one expert--the hardest schedule in the country with a record of 19-1. BYU is also ranked #9 in a tie with syracuse in the national polls. SDSU has an RPI of 4 and is ranked 4th in the country with a record of 20-0. so tomorrow at the marriott center two top ten teams will meet in provo for the biggest college basketball game to ever be played in the state...oh and there's a certain jimmer who is in a neck and neck competition for player of the year playing for the cougars.

buckle up and enjoy the ride. we'll be cheering as loud as we can and will give you a report on how it went.

the call of the pheasant...

michael went on his inaugural pheasant hunt this month! this is a tradition that i've gladly been a part of since i was 8 years old and trudging up the main ditch-line on grandpa's farm with my dad, cousins and uncles. michael was a bit hesitant at first as you can tell from the picture above. he walked five or six steps behind me as we walked in line with other hunters. however, after i shot the first bird and told him if the bird had flown out behind us he would have been in the line of fire he stayed right near me or whichever hunter he accompanied.

we all enjoyed ourselves. back in the day there were enough native birds in the area that we could hunt freely and have enough for all. however, as the years have gone on and the fox population had increased it is rare to see a native pheasant on grandpa's property.

and there is the dilemma. how to continue a great family tradition without anything left to shoot? we purchase birds from a pheasant farm, twirl them around till their too dizzy to fly and let them free in the brush to play the game of life and death (we let the dizziness wear off before we hunt them.)


this year's hunt was much more like prior year's hunts as we had cousins jeff, brian, darin, ryan, cutler and my brother jonny. uncles doug, kelly and my dad were there as was grandpa. the big difference was that jeff, darin, jonny and myself all brought kids! (where have the years gone?)

all the younger hunters got a bird and here is michael fulfilling the duty of a ditch trudger--carrying the pheasant back to the cars.

it was great to see everyone this year!

this tradition would not be complete without driving from gunnison to cougartown for a byu football game. here you see four generations of frandsens (grandpa frandsen's hand can be seen holding the binoculars behind my pops.) enjoying a traditional byu trouncing of unlv.

it is our final year in the MWC and after some of the things coaches and school presidents from the MWC have said about us it has been nice to beat every team in the conference to this point aside from TCU and Air Force (and this in a re-building year:)

some of that sentiment can be seen in michael's take on the game below...

another day, another game...

good clean fun over the weekend.

mom, dad, jonny, lafe and aaron met the kids and i at the field near the creamery for some tailgating... we had bratwursts, hot dogs, a vegetable tray and my favorite--black cherry fresca. we played football, talked football, cleaned up after the kids spills and enjoyed good company. from the field we walked down to the stadium.

this was the first time for abby and bekah to attend a football game and they were pretty excited! i had all the kids for the weekend, so mom took ella home with aaron. i had them get baths and did their hair myself in preparation for the big day at lavell edwards stadium. they were on cloud nine on the way to the game and for the first 5-10 minutes. luckily dad required everyone at least enter the bathroom prior to the game. it paid off for the girls. all my kids made it to half-time with reasonable amounts of squirming and boredom intermixed with fun and great-grandpa frandsen doing the cat and dog for bekah...

we spent the whole halftime on the lower concourse. my kids would run from me to the other side of the walkway dodging people and then returning for another bite of popcorn and another drink of sprite. even after 20 minutes it didn't get old, but i persuaded them to head back in to watch the remaining two quarters.

having the kids there brought back so many memories of going to games with dad, friends, amy and michael. what a great place with many traditions and memories contained...



thanks for coming to the game girls (and michael.)

before the game, michael predicted a win by 3 points for BYU. nice work buddy.

our exploits can be seen here:



and if you missed the game you can see what we saw to music here:

BYU vs San Diego State 2010 from Furious Monkey on Vimeo.

byu home opener...

michael and i went to the home opener with jonny and dad for his special day.

we met jonny, mom and aaron (after purchasing a portable grill from sears) for a tailgate party before the game. we grilled some bratwurst and played some football on the field near deseret towers. aaron and michael had an intense football game on the grass before the food was cooked.

in my heart of hearts i was expecting a loss from the cougs and was pleasantly surprised at their performance.

michael loves BYU football as much as ever. before the game he was mulling over the match-up and announced that the game would be the battle of the jakes (jake heaps and jake locker.) he cheered, watched the field, watched the jumbotron, used jonny's binoculars and generally was a joy to be with. after the game ended and we were walking out with jonny he says, 'dad, that was a huge win for us...'

video evidence of good times...



he loved it and so did i.

byu...

it wasn't pretty...


but we did it...


and it made us happy...


byu 23 utah 20 in OT

(michael's prediction byu 38 utah 21...)

calling all cougar fans...

as you may have heard, espn college gameday is coming to provo.

michael and i are planning to be there well before 8 am mountain time for the live taping of the show. however, we are struggling with the right balance for our posters and we need your help.

here are the penciled ideas we have so far.

michael's favorite (of course) has the most numbers on it.

there is the obligatory ESPN poster to assure camera time.

we plan on having our faces painted (i purchased the paint and spray earlier) and i plan on having michael on my shoulders so we can each hold up a poster for double the effect.

we can therefore make 4 posters (double sided)

i'm thinking the other two should be TCU themed posters (and there should be mention of 'horned toads'...)

as you will notice, the posters are a bit rough which is why we need your help!