Finally!

In 8 years, the stars have never aligned to allow me to go to a Packers game. Until now.

Seth's cousin, Dan is in Chicago all next week for work, but he came in on Friday to spend the weekend with us first. Since it is the Playoffs we were playing on a Saturday instead of Sunday so he suggested that we go while he watched the kids. Of course I said no. He came to town early to hang out and I didn't think dumping the kids on him and leaving for 12 hours was a very warm welcome. Plus, I over think everything and don't like to be that far away from my kids (3 hours to Green Bay), and I don't like to be on the road home with drunk fans and I always think that if I leave to go do something for myself that I will never make it home safe and then it will be my fault when my kids have to suffer. Crazy, right? Sadly that is how my mind works. So we kept checking ticket prices but I kept backing out.

Dan joked that if they lost and I wasn't there I would blame myself, but that was a double edged sword because if I did go and they lost I would also blame myself and never be able to go again. I am horribly superstitious when it comes to sports. But in the end the people around me helped me to see how rare this opportunity is. Usually games are on Sundays. I am not above going on Sunday (I know, I know, I am still working on that whole perfection thing) but who would watch my kids if I went on Sunday? I don't think one of the young women would skip church to watch heathen church skipping Sister Johnson's children and I wouldn't actually leave them for that length of time with a YW anyway. There is the rare Thursday or Monday night game but that is a school night so it would still be hard to find someone to watch them. And the Packers really shouldn't have even been playing this week. If we would have won last week we would have had a bye week or if they had properly called the game against the Seahawks earlier this season, we would not have had to play this week. So it must have been fate, right? You know, so that I could be there? Well maybe that is reaching a bit far, but we decided to seize the moment and go. I asked my kids if they would rather we stayed home and they practically begged me to go so they could spend the day with Danny. And luckily for them, the manager at the hotel he was staying at had connections at Key Lime Cove (indoor waterpark resort) so they spent their day swimming and sliding and definitely did not miss us for one second.

It was so much fun to be at a real NFL game in person! It was nerve wracking too. We were in the end zone, dead center, 13 rows back and on the first drive of the game the Vikings were coming at us so quickly. The field looks so much shorter than it does on TV and they were easily running right down to the end zone. I was sure we were in big trouble, but after that first drive we got Adrian Peterson in check and no one else on the Vikings showed up to play so it turned out to be an easy win. Second half was pretty play it safe (boring) but it was better for my nerves than a close game would have been.

I didn't bring my good camera because you can't bring bags in and I was already wearing a lot of clothing so the thought of wearing a camera was too much so pardon the crappy pictures, but even crappy pics of a Packers game are pretty freakin' awesome!

We arrived 3 hours before kick off to tailgate. Wait, what? Tailgate at Lambeau in January? Yep, they seriously do it. It looked like a hobo village with everyone huddled around trashcan fires but everyone was having a blast. Seth's boss, also named Dan, and his whole extended family were there. They are season ticket holders and Lambeau pros so we joined their party.
 
Seth and Dan

This next one is a treat for Valerie, who loves to see me uncomfortable. These two Vikings fans got in my pictures and were squeezing me so hard the whole time. Pretty awkward, but also pretty funny. And I look 9 months pregnant, but it is only because I had a lot of clothes on. And try to get a jersey off to go to the bathroom when it is stuffed over 7 layers and a big fat coat. It took me a good 10 minutes in the bathroom just to get it over my head, but it had to come off since I had snow bibs underneath everything. Now I know why so many people had their snow bibs over their coats/jerseys. Live and learn.

And look at Seth's wardrobe. He wore a big ugly set of winter coveralls from the farm supply store. I was horrified until I saw that about 30% of the crowd was similarly attired, and at least his weren't camo or hunter orange. I admit that I did have a matching ugly camo hand muff filled to the brim with handwarmers.
 
Snow sculpture

Here we are at our seats. Everyone stood the whole time so they never got much use.

Aaron Rodgers!

Kuhn just about to cross the line for his first of two touchdowns.

Field goal. Thankfully 2 of the 3 Packers TD's and the only Packers FG were on our end of the field so we got to see most of the action right in front of us.

Scoreboard right after our second half TD. Not much action from here on out so the 2nd half lacked excitement but the end result was what we hoped for, so no complaints from me.

Of course we brought souvenirs home for the goobers. Not Bernie, he already had that scarf. Alyssa just wanted him in the picture.

Chloe wore her new dress to church.

Those tights have actually been to church many times, even paired with pink flowers sometimes. Here she is a few weeks ago when we played (and beat) the Bears. We have Bears fans in our ward so she likes to show her colors, and she likes to pose, as you already know.



She also shows her pride at school. When the letter of the week was G she dressed up in as many G's as she could find in her closet and dragged a bunch of Packers gear to school. No one tells her to do this stuff, it is just in her WI blood, I guess.




I guess that will be enough pics of Chloe. I have more of her than of the game but it is so funny to see a 5 year old girl who is so passionate about her team.

It was such a great night and I loved finally having the full Lambeau experience, during the Playoffs even. The people are so nice and were even courteous and patient with the obnoxious Vikings fan who was across the aisle from me cussing and spilling beer on everyone. Cheeseheads are the best!

Huge thanks to Dan for insisting that we go and for taking good care of my kiddos. They had the best time. And my sincerest apologies to Aunt Julie who counts on me to get recent pics of Dan for her. It was hard to get waterpark shots from the other side of the state, but maybe Sarah can get some new ones when he is in her neck of the woods later this week.

Go Pack Go!