Bowling with Cosmo

For weeks all we've heard around our house was "I want to go bowling with Cosmo!!!" K-BYU (tv station) had created Cosmo's Kids Club and if you joined (among other things), you could attend events with Cosmo, the BYU mascot. This month's activity was bowling at the BYU Games Center.

The pestering worked, we finally joined. Then we waited for our shirts and membership cards to arrive. They didn’t. We called and were told to just go down and they’d have a card waiting for them there. They would then be able to bowl with Cosmo for $1.

After leaving late from home on a Friday night and getting caught in no less than 3 accidents on I-15, and construction in Provo, we made it to BYU at 6:15 p.m. The event was scheduled from 6-7 p.m. I then had to do the whole search for VISITORS parking, but ended up hoping that the signs weren’t tricking me when I parked in the Permit Parking lot that also sported the words “Faculty Parking Only 7 am – 4 pm”. At this point, I didn’t care if I got a ticket, I was parking there!

We headed for the Games Center inside the Wilkinson Center. At 6:20 it wasn’t super crowded, and the kids saw Cosmo and began freaking out (not in a good way). As I comforted them, I paid the $1 per kid to bowl (there was no membership card waiting BTW) and we headed out to find balls and get set up on our lane.

At this time, Brooke is freaking out. She has no desire to bowl and wants Cosmo to stay FAR away from her. While I try to put shoes on her she is shaking and crying to go home. Luke is overcome by his love of bowling and is willing to watch Cosmo from a distance as he has not yet discovered we are there.
So, Luke begins to bowl his turn and then I take Brooke out and together we bowl. As time goes on, she remembers that she likes bowling and mom’s assistance is no longer required. She is doing little dances to the Disney kids’ music they are playing. All the while, we are watching Cosmo visit with others.
Finally, Luke asks me when Cosmo is going to come over and say “hi” to him. I call Cosmo over and he and Luke high-five. Brooke sees that Luke hasn’t been harmed in any way and comes over for a high-five too. I am able to get 2 shots of them all together and then Cosmo watches Brooke bowl and congratulates her on hitting some pins.

My kids were in heaven! Cosmo wasn’t scary Mom! He was cool! As a treat, we went up to the Cougar Creamery and got ice cream cones. What did the kids have? LaVell’s Vanilla.