Notre Dame vs. Utah Adventure

The College Football Hall of Fame
South Bend, Indiana



Warm-ups before the rain started.




The amazing view from our seats.

We have been lucky the last couple of years to pick an away game to go see - a mini-vacation with a football game on the side. This year, we were lucky enough to go to the Utah-Notre Dame game in South Bend, Indiana. There were so many Utah fans attending the game - even our flight out East was packed with Utah fans - so much so that the flight attendent welcomed the fans going to the game over the loud speaker. Midway Airport was a sea of red heading to the luggage claim and rental cars. It was pretty amazing to be part of that!

We spent the night in Chicago then headed for Elkhart Count the next morning. I love being in the midwest in the fall. It makes me wish I was living back home again. We went to the College Football Hall of Fame first. They do such a good job of highlighting both Notre Dame and the visiting team. We could have spent hours in there looking at the history of the game, playing the games, and experiencing the whole museum atmosphere.

We visited campus during the afternoon before the game. What an amazing place it is. It kind of reminded me of what Hogwart's would be (think Harry Potter) with all it's very old English architecture and pagentry. The Notre Dame fan base was so cordial - truly put Utah fans to shame. We visited for hours with people we just happened to meet on campus before the pep rally, and enjoyed their hospitality.

Wouldn't you know we went from the hotest day ever in November to the yuckiest of fall days right as the game was starting. We were treated so graciously by the ushers and the fans we sat by - and I hope we learned these lessons so we can use them in the future. We were down in the end zone on row 3 (you know those professor's tickets that say "not for resale"? Yep, there were sure lots of happy Utah fans sitting in those seats while the Crimson Club members were sitting up in the upper level of the stadium. They said there were about 7000 Utah fans there for the game - and I am so glad we were part of it. At least, until the game started and Utah forgot to show up to play. What a crazy, cold, wet, miserable game. At least the people around us were fun to sit by and we had great seats so we could really see the game action.



The view of the Crimson Club seating area from our seats.

On Sunday, we took a CD tour of Elkhart County. I think it was one of the favorite part of the trips. Bummer that is was Sunday - we would have loved to spend time in the Amish shops and furniture factories. The one small pleasure was a little town general store selling the world's longest jelly beans. My favorite treat ever!

We hope to make it back to Elkhart one day and take that tour again so we can see all the fabulous crafts and workmanship the Amsih people have to offer.

Gotta' Love Granddaughters!

Aftyn 2011 showing her silly face! (The hurry up and take my picture grandma face.)

Aftyn is trying so hard to try and sit up when you are changing her diaper or she is laying down. She has started to roll over but I think it still surprises her when it happens. She isn't so cuddly any more and likes to go to sleep with her Glow Worm. We love it when she sits in her little chair at the table and tells us all about her latest 'story'. It's so funny when babies realize just how noisy they can be in our family room since it kind of echos when they squeal.


Ella is almost as big as the nutcracker!


Baby Aftyn and Ella in February.

We have been lucky to have the girls here a few times for the day. Each time, Ella wants to head out to the barn to see Rusty - and each time the weather has been miserable. We are so glad spring is here so that she can get some rides in on her horse.

The last time she was here for the day, we kept waiting and waiting for the storm to pass. Finally after several hours, we went outside in 'tornado gale' winds, but she insisted on making sure to say good night to everyone, not once, but twice. Out to the barn, out to the pasture, back to the barn, back to the pasture, then a final trip through the barn to see Rusty one last time. Ella likes to stand in the back of the Ranger and supervise the nightly routine of feeding and 'scooping poop'. She measures out the medicine (whoa, whoa at two scoops, take some back out) too. The last time she was taking care of the medicine, we were standing at the water hydrant adding water to his medicine when Rusty decided to escape his stall (the door wasn't quite shut all the way) and he came and joined us at the hydrant. I guess he just wanted to make sure we were mixing his meds correctly! We sure moved in a hurry to get her off the ground and him back into his stall.

Alaska Days

Last year Brynn had planned on going to Alaska to visit some friends. That didn't end up happening, so she had a huge airline credit that she needed to use up. Ken was going to go with her but knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up with her since he needs to have his knee replaced. (YUCK!)

So, to celebrate her master's degree, we went on a cruise to Alaska.



WE went zip-lining - Brynn loved it!


One morning we woke up to balloons around the door and a sign on the door congratulating her on her graduation. One night at dinner they brought her a big chocolate cake and a group of waiters singing "Happy Graduation to You" to he.


We loved our cruise ship - yummy food - we were up on the Lido deck and the hamburger grill was right close to our room. I think Brynn only caved for the fries once (that I knew of).

Easter Egg Hunt 2010

I think that the Easter Bunny must have work up on Ground Hog Day instead of Easter! Holy cow was it cold. Amber and Ella came to the Easter Egg hunt at the park, but we were bundled up like we were going snowmobiling...



Easter Sunday Brunch
Everyone came for breakfast so they would have the afternoon with the next set of parents. Ella was excited to see all the Easter baskets and wasn't so happy when she had to wait to go outside and find her's in the grass.




After breakfast the kids took their post-meal nap. We broke out the old Fisher Price toys that I have saved for the last 20 years and Ella had a great time playing with them while the boys napped.

NCAA Road to the Final Four

Chase's girlfriend gave Chase tickets to all three second round games of the Men's NCAA Basketball Finals last weekend. I was lucky enough to get to go with him on Saturday afternoon to see the Butler - Kansas State final eight game. I was so excited to get to go, and most of all, how many 20-something's are going to take their mom to a basketball game? Jess, what were you thinking? It was SO FUN!
After watching the games on Thursday night, both Chase and I were rooting for Butler - him because they were the underdog, and me, because they were a midwestern team - about 100 miles from home.
The game was pretty exciting and got even more so in the last five minutes when Kansas State actually made a game of it.

Messing around during half-time.





There were two sections of K-State fans, and the rest of the 17k fans were screaming for Butler. Gotta' love it when the underdog wins. What a fun afternoon!


As we were getting out of the game, the parking lots were besieged by mini-vans and a gazillion young women in dresses all headed for the General Young Women's conference. Probably quite a site for all the out-of-staters who would have no clue what just hit downtown!

After a quick diner at Chili's (so we could watch the Kentucky game), Chase put me on the train so I could head home and pick up Ella for her overnighter.

THANKS CHASE!!!

Ella and London

Several weeks ago, Drew and Amber and Seth and Velvet went out to dinner and left Ella and London with Brynn and I. London and Ella are only a couple of weeks apart in age and have been babysat together for quite a while. They had so much fun together.

Ella hadn't had dinner, but London had. You can tell from the picture that Ella wasn't too concerned about dinner, but London wasn't about to let that cereal bowl of Brynn's get too far away!



I hope these girls are friends forever!

Easter Weekend

On Saturday, Amber and Ella came down to the city park for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. She was not thrilled to see Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny among the 0-3 year olds, but we stayed a on the other side, strategically placing Ella where there were very few other kids. The wind was wicked but it didn't stop all those kids from cleaning up all the candy in about 5 minutes. I had to laugh at all the bubble gum on the ground in the baby area - what baby can chew gum?







BRRRRR!



On Sunday, everyone made it for breakfast, except Justin who was at work, and Carson who had just been called to North Dakota to take care of the state's latest electricity emergency.

Ella zeroed in on the Easter baskets as soon as she walked into the room. It was a little insulting to her to be given a basket with just a jacket in it when there were 9 other baskets full of candy that she could see. After breakfast, we went outside so she could have her own personal Easter egg hunt - which was ruined by the dogs next door scaring her. We finally got her to pick up her goodies and she was a happy camper with her basket of fruit snacks.





Once everyone was settled in for their post breakfast nap, Brooke and I cleaned up a couple of our old Fisher Price toys. The look on the kids' faces was priceless as they recalled all the times they played with those very toys.