Austin's First Game in Notre Dame Stadium!

We were blessed to be able to attend the Notre Dame vs. MSU game this past weekend at Notre Dame.  Between the family's season tickets and the 7 alumni in the family in the alumni lottery, we managed to obtain enough tickets for a whole bunch of us to go to the game.  My Dad rented a house in South Bend for us all to stay in and my mom was an angel and took Trevor and Sarah back to the house when the game started so that Daddy, Grandpa, and I could take Austin to his first game in the stadium!  It was a busy, but really fun weekend!

First, we drove to Wheaton and stayed with Uncle Jim for Thursday night.  Then Friday morning, we headed to St. Joe, MI to visit Tom and Mary.

Playing in the garden and finding pears that have dropped from the tree.

Then we headed to campus and took the kids down the tunnel into the stadium.

Then we headed over to the marching band practice.  Sarah put her fingers in her ears for the first few minutes.  Trevor was dancing in his stroller and having a great time! 

I like the piccolo section's shirts this year - "An instrument's an instrument, no matter how small." (Like Dr. Seuss's "Horton Hears a Who").  Yay piccs!

Then off to the bookstore to get some more ND gear.  These kids outgrow clothes so darn fast!  Then we headed to the end of the pep rally to meet up with the rest of the family again.

Saturday was game day! We headed to campus in the late morning and got to hang around campus with our friends Kim and Scott, who are now professors at ND!

Here is Austin racing Kim around the lawn. 

The babes on the steps of Bond Hall.

Our family of 5 in front of the Dome!

What a beautiful place this is!

Then we headed to Bond Hall, which is the architecture building and the location of the Marching Band's "concert on the steps".  Since Kim is now a professor of architecture and has an awesome view of the Dome and the concert from her office, she invited us up to her office to watch the concert.  The kids had fun sitting on the window sill and peeking out over the concert and the gathered crowd.
(If you look closely in this photo, you can see the Dome right in front of Sarah's nose!)

Then time to head to the stadium. We watched the band go by on their marching route to the stadium.

 Then into the stadium for the game!

Austin was SO excited!

A special day for my Dad...sitting in his Dad's seats, taking his Grandson to his first game!  We miss you Grandpa/Great-Grandpa, but we know you were smiling down on us from above.

The band trotting onto the field.

My happy boy!

Austin had so much fun at the game!  He was totally cracking up everybody around us.  It was just one hilarious comment after another.
A couple of choice comments:
- "Tommy, what were you thinking!?!" said in his enthusiastic but exasperated 6 year old voice.
- "I can throw a ball better than him.  I play flag football. I'm pretty fast."
- "And we're not even watching the game on TV! You know how I know that? There's no yellow line!"  (Referring to the line on TV that marks where the first down is).
- "I think I want an interception.  Right now!" (and then we actually got one!)
- We had a very nice MSU fan sitting behind us, and for about the first half of the game, Austin kept turning around and directing his chatter and comments to her.

Celebrating a touchdown!

We headed home on Sunday after stopping by Scott and Kim's beautiful home for a visit on our way out of town.  The kids were exhausted by the exciting weekend!  Austin and Sarah watched movies, read books, or relaxed on the drive, while Trevor slept in chunks and fussed the rest of the time.  The poor kid just hates being confined to his carseat.

My sweet sleepy babies...

We had such a fun weekend and hope to make another family trip out to ND again next year, probably for Alumni Band!