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.