Smelling Roses

No doubt you know by now that Stanford managed to beat UCLA (in a nail-biter) for the Pac-12 championship last night, so they are Rose Bowl bound for the first time in 13 years! It was a pretty excited student body that stormed the field after the game. This was the view after the game from where the band (Mary) sits.

And I am going to take an educated guess and say that this is probably from the same vantage point as the above photo, just with the camera just turned the other direction. Yep, these are some pretty happy LSJUMB-mates who are excited for a trip to Pasadena! (Who will they play in the Rose Bowl? It's the winner of tonight's Wisconsin-Nebraska game. You know who we're rooting for it to be!)

So what does all of this mean for the Harrisons? Well, it means that Mary will be marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade, as well as in the Rose Bowl game. She'll have to return to Stanford at the end of December (no exact date yet) for band rehearsals. (Apparently the Tournament of Roses people require the bands in the parade to actually march in the parade - not dance - so Mary's told us that the band has, among other things, to learn how to march .....) The entire band will bus down to Pasadena together, sometime prior to January 1 (again, date not yet published but I am thinking they'll let the kids know today) and participate in various pre-parade/pre-game festivities. Brad and I have decided that this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we don't want to miss it. We were up until the wee hours last night booking flights, parade tickets, hotels, etc. All that's left are game tickets and those go on sale Monday. We are SO excited to ring in the New Year in Pasadena!