Flashback Friday {September 2007}

This is a flashback to almost 3 years ago exactly. It was 4 football seasons ago and my first ever trip to Nebraska. I do have family that lives in Nebraska but I had never been there myself. I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time. Although, I never got sick with my pregnancy I did get a little "pukey" feeling on one of the flights there. The first flight was fine but the second we were flying in a small prop airplane and there was a bit of turbulence. I didn't know if I was going to survive the flight without losing my lunch...but, I made it! After that I just had to deal with my father-in-laws some times jerky driving. Since I was pregnant and not feeling the best I was lucky enough to be able to sit shot gun in the rental car.

We made our way to Lincoln, NE for my first Husker home game experience. I had heard Jon talk about how awesome it is to be in the stadium along with the famous "Sea of Red" but I don't think I really knew what to expect. It was amazing! It was Jon, myself, Val & Larry (now my in-laws) and about 90,000 other screaming/fanatical Husker fans.

They were playing the USC Trojans that game and the outcome was a little grim. Nebraska lost the game and we were all a little disappointed. The team didn't do that well that year and at the end of the season the head coach Bill Callaghan was fired. They hired a new coach by the name of Bo Pelini. He had been a defensive coordinator at NU before moving on to LSU and helping them earn the national title right before leaving to take his new position in Nebraska.

Since then, Nebraska has turned the football program around and started the 2010 season ranked 8th in the country. This picture is a forever reminder of my first experience at a Husker football game. Win or lose it's an amazing experience!!

Wordless Wednesday {spouses that buy the exact same anniversary card}

Go Hussers!

Tomorrow is the first Nebraksa football game in the 2010 season. Not only is Jon excited but Barrett and I are too!!! Of course Barrett is always told to say things like "Go Huskers!", "Go Big Red!" or "Go Nebraska!" But all the sudden he has started saying it on his own without Jon or I encouraging him. For some reason he's been getting the urge to yell "Hussers! Hussers" while he's in the bathtub?? Not quite sure what that's about. I know it makes Jon very proud each time he hears our litte guy utter that word. He must have known that football season was drawing near because 2 mornings this week on our way to daycare he said "mommy, i want the song with Go Hussers!" At first, I wasn't sure what he was referring to but after thinking for a bit I realized he wanted me to sing him a song that Jon has on his iPod. It's the Nebraksa fight song. It goes like this (and yes, I did sing it for him in the car!)

"There is no place like Nebraska, dear old Nebraska U. Where the girls are the fairest, the boys are the squarest of any old place that that you knew. There is no place like Nebraska, where they're all true blue. We'll all stand together in all kinds of weather for dear old Nebraska U!"

After all the words the band plays and then the crowd yells "Go Huskers!" a few times...this is the song he had been wanting to hear.

Some may think it's surprising that a girl that was born and raised in Oregon would actually go along with all of this Nebraska hype but I honestly do enjoy it. It's so much fun!!! I love watching the games (before I met Jon I don't think I ever watched an entire football game in my whole life...now I watch every play!), love buying new Nebraska gear, and love the tradition that goes along with all of it. I may not be as rilled up as Jon is for the game tomorrow, but I too am very excited!!!

So in Barrett's words.....GO HUSSERS!!!!

Boating :)

Finally!! We were finally able to go boating before summer comes to an end. Our friend Jason offered to take us all boating yesterday after we got off work. At first, Jon didn't think he had time to run home after work, gather all of our gear, pick Barrett up from Daycare and make it out to the boat launch in time to really enjoy an evening on the water. He called me at work to get my opinion. I knew how much Barrett would love it so we decided to go ahead and give it a shot.

Jon and Barrett headed out before I was off of work and enjoyed a little 'guy' time along with Jason and his brother Matt. I got off work at 5pm, grabbed McDonald's and met the boys on the Willamette. When I got to the dock for them to pick me up I could hear Barrett yelling from the boat "french fries!" He knew I was bringing McDonald's and has grown to absolutely LOVE french fries. I can't say that I blame him! I got on the boat and off we went, slowing down to feed some ducks a few fries. That of course was very exciting to Barrett, he would have been perfectly content just feeding the ducks all evening long. Jon was able to do some wake boarding and then we parked the boat at the beach for a bit. Barrett loved playing with sticks and throwing rocks into the water.

It turned out to be a great evening. Jon and I were both very glad Barrett was able to experience a fun, spontaneous evening on the river!

Close up of his face as he was driving the boat...he took it very seriously

It's almost.................

FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!

Once again I'm gearing up to 'lose' my husband for the next 4 months. Hard to believe that less than 4 years ago I literally knew close to nothing about football. I'm very proud that I have learned a ton about football and actually enjoy watching it now!! Good thing, because that is just about the only thing my husband can concentrate on once college football has started each year!

Go Big Red!!!

Wordless Wednesday

August 11th? Where has the year gone.....

Middle of August?? Really?? I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas and then mine and Jon's birthdays in January. Here we are almost all the way through summer. I'm convinced that time goes by much quicker the older we get and even faster once we have children. I remember the years seeming to d-r-a-g on and on when I was young and in school. Feels strange that Jon and I will already be celebrating our one year anniversary on August 21st.

Before summer had arrived I had all of these grand ideas in mind...tons of bbq's with friends, fires in our backyard fire pit every weekend, boating & wake boarding. Sadly, we haven't had any bbq's and haven't went boating ONE single time. I think this marks the first summer in my lifetime that I haven't been boating. Don't get me wrong...we have done a lot of very exciting things this summer! We went camping over the 4th of July, went to Vegas a couple weekends after that to stay with friends, we've went swimming, spent time with family, attended concerts at Oak Knoll winery and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. This past week Jon flew to Nebraska with his brother for his grandma's funeral. His parents had driven back in their motor home 2 weeks before. They all made the journey home in the motor home and from what I hear, had a great time. Jon said all of their stomachs were sore from laughing.

I'm sad to see summer getting closer to coming to an end. Thankfully, the Fall in Portland is something in itself to look forward to. I always look forward to the trees starting to change colors and the cooling of the weather from hot to a warmish cool temperature (if that's really a type of weather??) . Jon is anxiously awaiting the start of another season of Nebraska football. He's already reading the daily articles online about how the beginning of practices are going. Just another month and we'll be traveling to the University of Washington to see our beloved Huskers play on this side of the country. Go Big Red!!!

Another summer almost done and gone...............