College Football Hajj

Apparently going to a Notre Dame football game has been on my dad's bucket list for quite a while, seeing as how Notre Dame is the Mecca of college football.  When he learned about a year ago that BYU would be playing Notre Dame this year, he set a plan in motion to make sure that he would be in Indiana that very weekend. 

We of course love having Dad and Susie come visit at any time, free of charge. However, this time I informed Dad that there would be a fee to stay with us - payable in the form of Notre Dame/BYU football tickets.  He was more than amenable to this idea and he bought tickets for Lance, Spencer, and me as well. 

Susie, the most wonderful Grandmother/Step-mother In. The. World. was willing and brave enough to watch Josh, Cole, and Tess for us.  (This even included taking Josh to his soccer practice, which doesn't sound that scary, but trust me.  I've done it.  It's scary.)

(Side Note: Misty, you were a life saver yesterday in helping Susie with Cole.  THANK YOU!)

((Side Note the 2nd: Craig, you were awesome for being willing to take Cole.  Sorry he wouldn't come with you.  Apparently he remembers all the beatings you've given him in nursery all too well.))

So, yesterday was game day.  We hopped in the car and made the threeish hour trek up to South Bend.  The fall colors are still out and it was a pretty drive, marred only by Spencer's whining about having to work on his presidential report on the way up.  (Curse you, President John Tyler!)

We finally got to campus and headed straight to Touchdown Jesus.  Because that's what you do when you go to Notre Dame.

There he is!

I don't think Spencer really understood the significance of this, but I made him take a picture anyway.  Some day he'll appreciate it.

Then Spencer and Grandpa needed a picture in front of the famous Notre Dame stadium.   Lest you think there's something weird about us taking all these pictures, there were about 100 other fans doing the exact same thing.

Don't you think this one would make an awesome Christmas card photo?  Too bad the other three kiddos weren't there.  No, not really.  It was most infinitely better that Josh, Cole, and Tess weren't there.  But it would have been great to have them in the picture.

Soon it was time to get to our lunch.  But first one more picture of the mural.  The halo was glowing so brightly in the sun, but you can't really tell in the picture.

We strolled through campus - it was beautiful.  Lots of open spaces, lots of trees and statues, and football fans.  

 

 Here's Spencer in front of the war memorial.  I think it looks like a modern Stonehenge.

 

We decided to have lunch with the BYU Alumni association.  It was a pretty good lunch, although I don't know it was worth the price tag.  Still, it supported the Cougars and Spencer got a free pom-pom, so I guess worth it.

Plus, we got to take a picture with COSMO the cougar!!  Cosmo has grown quite a bit recently - he's pretty tall now. 

Spencer also got to have his face painted, which he thought was pretty cool.

 
Cosmo from the back, in case you were wondering.

Then it was back out to campus to go hear the band play.  There was a gigantic banner on one of the dorms that said "Here Come the Irish".

I think this is the administration building.  Or maybe the first building on campus?  I can't remember now.  Scenic.

Here's another statue of Jesus, but he's not calling a touchdown.  Maybe calling a player safe at home plate?

Pretty.  I could totally live on this campus.  (Not that BYU wasn't or isn't pretty.  Just a different kind of pretty.)  ((No, Notre Dame is prettier.))

Spencer couldn't see the band, so Grandpa helped him out.

Poor Spencer was a little short for the band - be I think he enjoyed the concert.

And there they are!  The mighty Notre Dame marching band, plus the Notre Dame Honor Guard. (Those are the guys in the funny hats.)  (Well, the tall, funny hats.)

They of course play the Notre Dame fight song and hymn and a few other things, and then did a random selection of songs from "Back to the Future", which made both Lance and I wonder how they exactly choose their songs.  Hmmm...  Anywho, I must've heard the fight song 398 times that day.  It's fun and exciting at first, but rather obnoxious later on.  Especially when your team is losing.  (Oh - spoiler alert!)

We eventually got into the stadium.  As you can see, we were pretty high up.  Still, we had a great view of the stadium and the field.

Photographic proof of my dad completing his college football Hajj.  Notice Touchdown Jesus in the background.  It's really quite impressive how prevalent he is in that stadium!

Unless, of course, he's cut out of the photo. (Lance.) But no worries, it's still a great photo.  The only way it could have been better would be if Kyle and Kevin were there, too.  Then again, we'd have had to listen to all three of them yell at the top of their lungs all during the game, so never mind.

The Notre Dame team running out onto the field to practice.  Their helmets are so shiny and pretty at the beginning! (Spoken like a girl who enjoys college football but who is not quite as passionate about it as her father.)

The first kick off!

The omnipresent Touchdown Jesus!  As you can see, it was generally cloudy and slightly cool.  Perfect football weather.

The band's show during halftime.  They really were a pretty great band.

So, in case you're not Mormon, you should know that every time you get a big group of Mormons together (as BYU fans are wont to be), you often run into people you haven't seen in decades or people you never expected to be at that gathering.  So of course we ran into my PRESCHOOL TEACHER from 30 years ago, Phylis Bray.  She still lives in North Carolina, but was out visiting her son and daughter-in-law, who are getting their Ph.D.'s at Notre Dame.  I never would have recognized her, but my dad did.  She seemed to know about our lives and what's been going on, I assume from the Christmas letters my dad sends out.  Anywho, the world is so very, very small, especially in the church. 

Spencer did a great job during the game.  He didn't whine about being bored or too cold or anything. When asked about what his favorite part of the game was, though, he replied that it was the nachos grandpa bought him. :)

There was a scoreboard right above us, too.  But no jumbo-tron in the entire stadium.  This was a little annoying, since it meant we could never watch the replays.

 It's a pretty impressive stadium; just about every one of its 80,000 seats were full!

Spencer towards the end of the game.

Photographic proof we were actually there together.

 
The final score.  Poor BYU lost, but not by nearly as much as was expected.  (Hey, BYU fans have to be realists.)  I like to think Touchdown Jesus is saying something along the lines of "It's okay, BYU.  You did your best.  Mostly.  Would you like a hug?"

 

Overall, a GREAT way to spend a beautiful fall Saturday.  Thanks for taking, Dad!

Chocolate Frog Cookies

Last Christmas Santa Claus put a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog in everyone's stocking.  (Coincidentally, Dad and Susie paid a visit to Harry Potter World a few weeks prior.  What are the chances?)  Chocolate Frogs are pretty awesome - and big.  They were pure, solid milk chocolate, and although we all tried, no one could finish their frogs.

After the holidays I couldn't bring myself to toss the frogs.  Santa had forgotten to take the price tag off of the bottom of the boxes, and let me tell you, chocolate frogs aren't cheap.  (True story: Dad and Susie said there was someone at the store whose only job was to make sure that the chocolate frogs didn't run out, they sold that quickly.  I suspect this is because although the chocolate frogs weren't cheap, they were probably still the cheapest thing at Harry Potter World.  Consumerism at it's finest, people!)

Anywho, I decided the frogs should hibernate in our freezer for a while and that I would eventually come up with something to do with them.

Last night I came across the chocolate chipper that was also in my Christmas stocking last year.

Kismet.

Hello, rather large and solid chocolate froggie!

What?  No, don't worry about that chocolate chipper next to you.  It's perfectly harmless.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAA!  (*evil laughter*)

In case you're curious, that's about 2.5 chocolate frogs.  Maybe a little less.

The froggies baked up very nicely in a batch of pumpkin cookies.   I think this time of year is perfect for frog cookies, don't you?

I'm pretty sure J.K. Rowling would approve.

Bucket Head

I'm really loving this bucket head phase... :)

Oh, How I Love This Girl

I came into the living room yesterday to discover Tess like this.

She was walking her plush cow across the hearth, saying "dop dop dop" with each "step".  (I make the same sound when I'm walking Tess around.)  Apparently a McDonald's Happy Meal bucket is the perfect accessory for this type of activity.

Applesauce

Today was all about applesauce.  I had 60 pounds of apples, a new food grinder/strainer, and a (kinda) free morning.

Tess had therapy for an hour (during which she behaved for maybe 15 minutes), and then it was cutting, cooking, grinding, straining, and processing all those apples!

Cole and Tess had the audacity to still expect lunch, despite the fact that I was right in the middle of making all that applesauce.  Lucky for them, I'm a super nice mom and let them have fresh applesauce with cinnamon graham crackers: a little piece of heaven as far as I'm concerned.  (And the way the kiddos gobbled it up, I think they agree!)  Homemade applesauce just tastes soooo much better than store bought!

 

I made around 23 quarts total.  In the end I only processed 15 quarts - mainly because that's how many quart jars I had on hand.

Then I used 5 quarts to make some crockpot apple butter.  I've never made it before, but it sounds awesome.  I'll let you know.  (It takes a LONG time to cook!)

The remaining three quarts was put in the fridge for eatin'.  I used some of it to make this applesauce cake with cream cheese frosting.  Yum.

Tessie Distinguishes Herself

Tessie decided to do something to really set herself apart from her brothers.

First, she pooped in the tub.  Unfortunately, that is not anything all that uncommon around here, at least when the kids were her age.

But then.  Oh then.  Then she decided to scoop the poop out and throw it.  Everywhere.  All over.

I can only imagine that she decided to do this because of the reaction she gets from me when she normally poops in the tub.  So her thought process was something along the lines of "Mommy doesn't like poop in the tub.  So I'll get the poop out!"

It was like walking into a minefield.  Not to get too graphic, but skid marks were abundant.

Spencer and Josh were quite impressed.  Apparently they now have a new found respect for their little sister.

As I was soaping and scrubbing Tessie in my shower, I told her that only monkeys throw their poop.  To which she replied "Yeah".  So now if you hear me calling her "my little monkey", you'll know that it's not because of her climbing prowess.

The sanitize cycle on my washing machine gets far more use than I ever imagined it would.

LAN-O-WEEN

On Saturday Lance hosted the annual LAN-O-WEEN party. What is LAN-O-WEEN you might ask?  It's a LAN party held in October.  What is a LAN party you might ask?  Basically, it's a bunch of guys who play computer games all night.  The food pyramid is destroyed with junk food consumption of epic proportions.  Although they all wear head phones to hear the game and each other it still gets pretty loud.  And hot.  And (to coin a word made famous by Lance's Grandpa Red) testosteroney.

Lance loves it.  Spencer and Josh love it.  I tolerate it.

This LAN party was extra special because there were sponsors.  Yes, with an "s" at the end.  You can see who they were here.  Yes, there is a LAN Party webpage.  Yes, they're called LANily Home Evening.  Yes, that is a pretty awesome name, I'll give 'em that.

Because LAN-O-WEEN is so special, I helped Lance by decorating the basement a bit.  Spooky, right?

There was also a drawing for some fancy shmancy keyboards.  We set up a drawing table in the storage room where the guys could put their name in a cauldron for a chance to win.  It was Lance's idea to put the light under the table.  Spoooooky!

I have no idea why my pumpkin lanterns are showing up green here.  As a pumpkin lover I find this a bit obscene.

By LAN party standards this was kind of a small one - only 20 guys.  (TWENTY.)  Seemed pretty big to me...

You can see the bats I put up on this one.  I love bats on the wall.

I'm a little afraid to see what my electricity bill will be this month.

Here's Mike (a.k.a. "Brutus").  Apparently the guy had the best night of his life because he won the Short Bus tournament, the Golden Gun tournament, a memory stick, and one of the keyboards!

This is not the best picture in the world, but I think it's funny.  Mike has a funny look on his face, Lance's disembodied arm makes an appearance, and Don is skulking around in the background.  Awesomeness.

There's a better picture!

The spoils of... war?  LANning?  Whatever.  Congrats, Mike!

Here's Lance and Mike and Brent.  I don't know why.

And here's Don - he also won a cool keyboard.  Instead of skulking in the background he's giving the LAN party a big thumbs up. 

Because I'm such a wonderfully awesome wife, I decided to test out a new doughnut recipe on the guys.  I made apple cider cake doughnuts.  They were pretty yummy, although I don't think they'll be making an appearance at THE doughnut party.  Cake doughnuts are good, but they just don't compete with a warm, fresh from the fryer spudnut.