fanaticism in South Bend

Every fall Simon talks about how fun it would be to go up to a Notre Dame football game and every fall we have a million excuses by the name of residency (not to point fingers or furrowed brows but ... I see you fall month of night float + call weekends) but since Simon was assigned to his night float month in July this half of the year ... we were finally able to make it happen this past weekend for the Michigan game.

Just call us lucky charms because como se dice, "slaughter" in sportmanship speak?

Also, I see you handbomb + Julia's jovial temperament.

I'll just give you the weekend highlights although I do love a good detailed timeline ... as you know all TOO well by now.

The drive up!

Murphy and his law would have Simon stuck at work every single Friday we want to leave town (fact) and by the time we hit the road the sky looked threatening and ominous and very end-of-the-worldy. And then we drove through what felt like the longest ice bucket challenge of them all by way of torrential rains ...

Also, Simon and I had this nice conversation:
Grace: it looks like tornado weather
Simon: have you ever been in a tornado?
Grace: no, but I've seen Twister
Simon: heartiest laugh of our entire marriage
Grace: not laughing, still serious

So I took a gander at the weather on the old phone and would you look at that ... 

... our entire route dotted with red and red means: tornado warning + vindication.

Totally over it!

Moving on.

So Katrina had generously offered to host us for the weekend but at the last minute one of Simon's college buddies offered us his parents empty condo near campus and before he could retract the offer we snatched it up and camped out there ... much to the excitement and delight of the condo dwellers below us.

We got in around 12:30 on Friday night/Saturday morning and Sebastian marched right up to the door directly underneath ours and rang the doorbell.

A gentleman formerly known as asleep answered in a stupor and looked a little something like this ...

... and I don't blame him one bit.

Game day!

With the time change the kids were up right before the crickety crack of dawn. So we dined on grapes and waited and waited and waited until the local Super Target opened so that we could grab food and drink.

Sebastian knows he's on familiar territory. And we don't have any ND gear for the older three kids so I had to improvise ... and they looked exactly like leprachauns dressed for an event where the dress code was: business casual. Sue me.

We had the great pleasure of meeting up with Katrina, Ana, and Alexandra for a playground date complete with coffee and many donuts c/o Ana and Mike. It was definitely a huge highlight of the weekend ...

The husbands were SO excited when we asked them to grab an easy snap of us moms and our cooperative broods.

Since the older kids are at the age where they can get away without naps (and we can cash in on super early bedtimes that way!) but Theo still very much needs a lengthy afternoon not-on-the-go nap we went back to the condo and let him and Phoebe sleep. This is suddenly feeling very timeliney. I'm terrible. And predictable.

Shock of all shocks - Sebastian also crashed. And shock of not shocks Simon did too while Julia kept me wide awake company slyly trying to wake Sebastian, "I just wanted to tell him I loved him!" and asking exactly how many toys she could buy with the penny she found in the parking lot.

Phoebe sounded the alarm and woke Simon so we enjoyed a private tailgate on the balcony while Julia serenaded us with her made up song, "Notre Dame" (those are the only lyrics) and Phoebe eyed Simon's adult beverage ...

... very suspiciously.

A couple of Simon's college friends were in town so after the boys woke up we loaded up the triple, cooler y todo and were on our merry way to catch the tail end of the tailgating on campus ...

In front of his old dorm trying to figure out where his friends were. Times haven't changed one bit.

I was totally caught using those doors as a mirror to fix my windwrecked hair by a kind lady who came out and asked if we wanted in and .... happened to be a blog reader! Small world. And from now on I shall start carrying a compact a la 7th grade back pocket for hair fixing emergencies lest I'm caught like that again.

In front of the library where Simon and I met aaaaalmost seven years ago. 

After garnering exactly no stares while navigating through the crowds on campus with the triple wide we finally found the compadres and set up camp ...

with mimosas minus the fun for the kids (aka orange juice, in case you didn't pick up what I was throwing down)

We had low hopes for the kids on campus and fully expected to have to pack up after 20 or 30 minutes but they made themselves right at home ...

... the old "run around an empty beer can" game.

Fun times seeing Katie and meeting her husband, Brian (Simon is worried he may have thought his name was Mike ... his apologies, Brian!!!)

Phoebe calmly communicating that we needed to leave.

So we did.

We were fortunate enough to get the name of a great (and available on game night!) sitter during the game but I am a total nut and didn't want to be too far away from Phoebe because she is a really great baby until the hour of 8-9pm when she puts the fear of God into me nightly with her screams. But! Of course she was perfect for the sitter (we watched the VICTORY across the street at a restaurant/bar situation) but you know that if we'd gone into the game she would've pulled the terror card and Sebastian would've done something wild that required multiple stitches. Live and learn, I suppose.

When Julia was a baby and we would go out of town I would have insanely high expectations for the trips thinking that Julia would happily go with the flow and that the change of pace would be a breath of fresh air from my new day to day grind. And I would always be devastated when she seemed to ruin any and all fun and wish we'd never left our abode at all.

But now! Simon and I have learned to have SUPER low expectations when we travel and we are usually always pleasantly surprised with how nice it is to step away from the grind at home. And this weekend was no exception.

That is definitely NOT to say the drive home wasn't a bowl full of purgatory ...

Pretty. But painful.

There was a LONG detour and wailing and gnashing of tantrums by children and parents alike. You know the drill, I'm sure.

We pulled in the driveway at 7:11pm and the kids were all tucked in by 7:20 which almost made up for the odyssey across Illinois in its entirety and the fact that three days later, our suitcases are still sitting fat and happy and untouched in Theo's room.

Anyway. That's that.

No more trip recaps for several weeks. At the very least. I hope you can see my wink and I know I can feel your palpable excitement.

GO IRISH.