Eli’s Second College Football Experience

Saturday was a busy day for us – after Ben’s race (described in the post below), we went to the Northwestern vs. Miami of Ohio football game. We get a pair of free tickets every year as a goodwill gesture by the university to the families that live near the stadium and have to deal with the traffic, crowds, etc.

I actually don’t think it’s that bad where we live now – we had a much more difficult time when we had our condo since parking on game days was a big nightmare. I get a big smile on my face when I drive down our old street and see the “No Parking on Saturday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.” signs since I don’t have to deal with that anymore… The irony is that the condo residents don’t get free tickets, just the houses – which totally doesn’t make sense!

Anyway, last year we took Eli for about 45 minutes of the game. It’s funny – when I looked back at that blog post, I realized that day was also the same day as the ward fun run. Weird coincidence!

Eli was VERY excited this time to go to the football game. He woke up Saturday morning around 6:45 a.m. to the sound of the marching band off in the distance, practicing at the stadium. When Ben went in to get him, he said Eli was sitting in his crib, pretending to drum like the band.

Later, on our walk over to the stadium, Eli kept repeating, “Go Cats! Go Cats!” (Northwestern’s mascot is the Wildcat) You can hear his yucky cough at the end of this video, which he has now had for a MONTH. Eli is now on an antibiotic because his doctor thinks he may have a sinus infection. It’s either that or allergies… I’m hoping the medicine clears it up.

Go Cats! Go Cats! (Walking to the Football Game) from Sarah on Vimeo.

It was really cute seeing Eli so excited about football. He loved clapping when the crowd clapped, and thought it was cool to see the players tackle each other.

We saw our realtor close to where our seats were supposed to be, so we ended up sitting near her and her daughter and friend. She took this picture of us:

Drew and Mike came over to see us (they get season tickets and usually go to every game), and it was fun seeing them too.

It was freezing, but it was hard to keep Charlie’s coat on. He was up the night before from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., crying, crying, crying (he seemed to be in a lot of teething pain, poor guy – and poor us). Then he slept until 8 a.m., and didn’t get a normal morning nap since we were at the fun run. By this point, it was about noon and he was so tired. I felt pretty zombie-like as well from being up so much in the early morning.

Drew took this picture of me and Eli – good job Drew! (my eyes were so tired that I didn’t feel like I was opening them very well, but that’s okay)

Drew and Mike are always really sweet with my kids. Eli likes them a lot and had fun seeing them there.

Charlie and I stayed for one quarter and the halftime show, and then headed home to rest and warm up. Ben and Eli stuck it out for the rest of the game! I couldn’t believe it. They moved over to where Mike and Drew were sitting and had fun with them and the others in their group.

And finally, here’s a video of Eli’s manic description of the football game – this was Sunday evening, right before we put the kids to bed. Eli was hyper and being so funny. Our favorite part of the description (before I turned the video on) was him calling the cheerleaders the “Dancing Mamas” since every woman about age 20+ is a Mama in his mind…

Eli's Description of the Football Game from Sarah on Vimeo.