Boiler up! Mommy & Oaks First Purdue Football Game

So we are crazy.   We decided to head to Purdue for the first home football game of the season.   It doesn't really seem like a crazy idea.   Purdue is a short 4 hour drive away, and we started planning this a few days out.   We got all excited, we were going to pack early, go to bed early, and wake up early and do it!   However, that is never how it goes down.   Plus, the weather sucked huge Friday night, and I didnt get home from work until after 9pm.   So we loaded the car up, booked a hotel for the next night and went to bed around midnight.   Then Oakley woke up crying at 1230am.   But, we were ready, so at about 245 the alarm went off, we got dressed, carried the kids to the car and we were off around 4am.  Oakley stayed up until we got into Indiana, Davey slept until we got close to Lafayette.   We stopped in town for bathroom and the boys to change clothes and then it was time to tailgate.   The black and gold lots opened about 45 minutes prior to us getting there, and it was a chilly 52 when we arrived.   Mommy and dad unpacked the car, the pop-up canopy tent, and got the grill fired up.  We had the Jalapeno wrapped bacon on the grill by 9am, and the beers open too!   Boys had milk, cheese and hot dogs on the grill, and a ton of healthy foods mommy brought for them to eat.   We probably have the only kids that eat fruits at a tailgate :)  Love it.

After eating a bunch of food, and now that the lot was full and no cars were moving within a 3 blocks of our kids, it was time for them to mess around playing a modified cornhole (bags) game.   These boys played so well together while mommy and daddy tailgated.

After a few hours of tailgating, we walked across campus to the stadium and watched Purdue win their first game of the season against Indiana State.   It is always fun (and rare) to see the Boilers win.

After the game ended, Davey made it a point that we had to find the train to show to mommy and Oaks.   It was his only goal after the game to find the Boilermaker Special.   Luckily we walked around to the southeast corner of the end zone and found it, and the xtra special too.   Sadly, they were not able to get a ride on the train this time, but they were quite happy to get the driver to blow the horn and take a pic next to it!.

 

After that, we were able to snap a family pic before we left the stadium.  It was a happy & fun day with my family at my old stomping grounds :)

 

And in typical Davey fashion, Purdue won.   Since moving to Ohio, Davey and I have gone to a game every season, and Davey has never seen Purdue lose in person.   His brother now has started his lucky streak too at 1 game.   Hopefully we will be back soon.... Boiler Up! 

 

After we got back to the car, the lake effect rain decided to fall, so we got in the car and took a tour around campus.   Since it was only in the low 60s out, the boys wanted to see the water fountains, but were not too into playing in them.   We also took the boys to the book store to buy a little memento from the day.   Davey picked an elephant dressed in a Purdue jersey key chain for his backpack. Our other son, when presented with a whole array of cool things to get, including some awesome shirts with a train on them (he loves trains).   He decided he needed a Purdue nerf basketball (he loves sports balls too).   On a plus note, these items only cost us like $17 (even though they were probably made in China for like .88 cents), Boiler Up!  :)

 

So typically when Davey and I go to a game, we leave the house around 630-7a, get to campus, park, and go to the game.  After we grab a bite to eat, and drive home.   Davey has always been great on these round trip 8-9hr drives in one day.   He will talk for about 99% of the trip and we have fun.   Well mommy wasn't so excited about waking up at 3am, driving, tailgating, watching game, eating, and driving back.   So Friday night we booked a hotel north of Indy since most of the decent Lafayette-area hotels were booked, or really expensive.   Mommy was smart, because by the time we got to the hotel, I was done.   No sleep + having a cold made daddy super shleepy.   But our boys were super excited to go in the pool in the hotel, so we went down for 45mins before bed.  How could you deny these faces?

 

After we went upstairs and had a contest to see who could fall asleep first.  I cheated since I was 70% asleep in the hallway outside our room :)   After a great nights sleep, we woke up to go downstairs and eat a great breakfast.  Davey and Oakley found out they like waffles at breakfast too.   After, we found out we didn't have to check out for almost 2 hours, so it was back to the pool of course.

 

So Davey is currently in tadpole in swimming lessons, but has had the most improvement I have seen ever from him in this class.   The video of Davey below is him jumping in and swimming across the pool.   Yes, he has floaties on... but I still think he did a great job, plus he shows off how he swims on his back

 

Of course, part of being Davey is always being silly :)

 

 

Oakley loves watching big brother, and he took a few shots at jumping in the pool too, as you can tell from his wet hair.   This prompted me to ask him who we should throw in the pool.  Watch his response.

 

Mommy wanted to pack up our stuff, while we all had fun in the pool, but we really really really missed her, so we we took this picture and sent it to her so she would abandon being a responsible adult and play with us :)  It worked (after she finished).

 

After, Crystal had never been to Indy, and we had the day to do whatever we wanted so we wandered around Indy.   The boys saw this monument that had a water fountain and got super excited.   So we parked and took a teeny tiny elevator to the top.   Look at the two pictures here, and try to find Crystal and the boys.   Hint, they are above the water fountain to the right.   btw, if you ever visit this... its really tight up top, and taking the stairs down with a 30lb 2 year old sucks and will make you dizzy at first :)   We spent a few more hours around Indy, then we decided it was time to head home.

I mostly drove on this trip, but after making a pit stop past Dayton, Crystal wanted to hijack the drivers seat.   I took this photo and am sharing it for two reasons.   1.  its funny  2.  it shows how much our boys love their mommy  3.  it show how much mommy loves her boys.   Oakley wanted Crystal to hold his hand while she drove, so she held his hand for like 50 miles.   My shoulder would have been dislocated from this, but it was the only way to keep little Oakley happy so mommy did it.   One day when Crystal and I are really old and in a home, and Crystal craps her pants when Oakley visits, I am going to show him this blog (if the internet still exists) and remind him of the stupidly awesome stuff his mommy would always do to make him happy, then make him change her diaper :) haha