Notre Dame cont....Here come the Irish!

Mike and I wanted to see the band enter the stadium. We positioned ourselves right by the gates and watched this impressive show!

Cheerleaders
The guys in kilts...

They would turn the corner so sharp! They were chanting....Here come the Irish, here come the Irish, Go Irish, Beat Utah....it started to sound like a horror show and was very intimidating!

Drum line....

Their band was huge! And once again, our puny band took the field and it was a little sad.....

We were in Notre Dame territory, but ended up sitting next to a couple of people from Utah that were there cheering Notre Dame! There were A LOT of Utes there...

Cool that they have a flag in their stadium...

Their team coming out...

And our team coming out....

Even though the game was TERRIBLE-we had a great time! It was a great experience! The student section was huge and on their feet the whole time.....just overall a really neat experience!

Notre Dame!!

Jim & Renae were so kind and generous and flew us to Chicago so we could attend the Notre Dame vs Utah football game. We left on Friday evening and arrived at our Chicago hotel about 10:30pm. My Mom came to stay with our kids. Thanks, Mom! They had a great time!

Scott & Kellie and Mike & I headed out for dinner at a bar named Emerald Loop. Very eventful...the music was really, really loud. Our waitress would just smile at us and nod her head. Who knows if she could hear us....maybe she could read lips. We also were present at a purse snatching. That's what the manager told us. We aren't sure what happened, but he told us someone's purse gets stolen at least once a day in downtown. Welcome to Chicago!

We actually love this city. We didn't have any other problems and enjoyed ourselves a lot!

So, Saturday morning, we got up and met everyone to head to the game. We stopped for breakfast in South Bend at this Bob Evans! Scott, Kellie, Mike & I had a memorable experience on another Arvy trip at a Bob Evans where Scott sent a dirty glass back with the waitress....only to have it reappear as Mike's refill on his soda! Well, all great trips have to start with some fun, so we stopped here. The service was SLOW, but the food and company were great!

I told Mike we needed a picture of this sign to remember our experiences at Bob's. He thought it wasn't a great idea and just started taking the pictures without everyone being ready. The bottom picture was as good as it gets!

We had two cars. S&K were with us. We found a place to park and just started walking. We immediately loved the campus.

This was the view on our walk to the campus...our first stop was at the team walk.

The Notre Dame team coming from Mass....this is their team walk (like our Ute Walk).

Notre Dame coach

I wondered why Mike took a close up of this guy, but he explained that it is Joe Montana's(famous '49er quarterback) son.

This is a grotto area where they light candles...something about Sacred Heart. I am so bad about the history here....please forgive me.

The group...minus Mike & Jim who were a little further ahead....we eventually caught up :) I wanted to see a little of the campus we were walking through and that's when we lost Mike & Jim...it was all good when we reunited again!

What a cute family!

Matt & Alisa

Mikey & me! I love this guy!

Scott & Kellie

Doug

Jim & Renae in front of the dome...my camera washed it out a bit.....

but Jim & Renae still look good!
We ran into quite a few people from our ward/neighborhood...including Rick & Rachel Orison. I thought one of Mike's brothers took a picture with our camera, but when we checked later...no picture! I have asked Rachel to send her copy to me, so if I receive it I will insert here :)

Here comes the rain! Jim getting his 'rain gear' on....it rained most of the game....kind of appropriate for how we were feeling about watching our Utes get crushed!

The marching band doing their concert

We got to see Steve & Hillary for awhile while we were listening to the band. So glad we met up with them! They came from PA with some friends and drove halfway back that night!

Nice Jim sneaking in the picture!

We walked through the Bascilica (spelling?) It was quite ornate and beautiful!

Beautiful stained glass

Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm thinking this is an altar

Touchdown Jesus

The crowd lining up to see the band and cheerleaders march into the stadium....very cool.

Go Utes with Touchdown Jesus!

Too bad the smiling had to stop about half way through the first quarter! Stay tuned for more!

Game Day!

ESPN-the sports cable station, came to our city to film their Saturday morning college football program! The game between the Utes and TCU is a bowl game decider. So, we needed to go and support out team! We woke the kids up at 6am and got to the stadium at 7am. It was really crowded and really fun! We stayed near the back of the crowd and roamed so we could see everything there was to see! The kids had a great time and it was worth getting up so early on a Saturday! Thank goodness the weather was great! It was about 50 degrees this morning and got up to 70 degrees by game time! Amazing weather for November!
We saw Casey & Taylor Francis and Joshua & Scott Harwood, our next door neighbors there, too, and had a great time hanging out with them!

The kids were pretty perky for 7am!

The stadium looked awesome!

The view of the game day set off to the left and the jumbo screem to the right. There was a camera on a wire that would pan over the crowd at times.

We like this sign that a little boy was holding. Mike asked to borrow it for a picture.

A view of the city in the early morning. And below, I loved how many flags were there! When the show went live at 8am, up came the signs...it was like a wall of posters and we weren't able to see much after that.

As we were headed toward the Union to get some breakfast, the kids played through these bike racks. Who knew something so simple would be such a blast!

That's our boy! He started climbing on these big granite rocks and soon the girls joined him! It was so fun to be up there without having hurry and get someplace. It was nice to have some down time!

After we visited the bookstore and played around on campus, we were driving around looking for a field to throw the football around. As we came through campus, we saw the Ute Walk banner. So, Mike & the kids jumped out to be there when the team came through and I drove around and filled the car up with gas...then, picked them up! There was no way I was going to find parking!

Here comes the band! We thought this guy was funny for pulling this face while Mike was taking his picture!

Our rugrats waiting for the Ute Walk. Love these kiddos!

They pull the team buses right over to the sidwalk by this banner and the walk starts!

We found a field where the old golf course used to be and hung out and played there for awhile. Mike told Sydney to catch this ball and she just screamed and ducked!

Mikey getting ready to let it fly!

Love this picture of the kids with the block U in the background!

Brandon got this foam helmet from some guy when they were all at the Ute Walk. He heard Brandon telling Mike he wanted one and just gave it to him! Awesome!!! Made Brandon's day!

Love this picture of Sydney and Brandon!

Dad and Amanda playing catch. She has a great arm! We took Mikey and dropped him off close to game time. As we were driving home, Sydney kept saying that was so much fun and wished we could do it everyday! It was a great, relaxing morning/early afternoon and the best way to spend a Saturday! Too bad the outcome of the Utah game wasn't in our favor! Amanda did get to go to the Real Salt Lake soccer game with her friend, Liz, tonight. Let's hope they win!

Well, Real lost, too! But, here's Amanda with Liz, Zack and Alli Wilson!