Hail to the Victors

We’re getting into a regular daytime schedule with the kids. Landon goes to his play-and-say class a couple of days a week, and Eliza goes to story time at the library.

On Tuesday after his class, Landon, Eliza, and Hallie went over to Sara’s to play with Chase and enjoy the sunny afternoon.

Thursday was a crazy busy day. Landon and Hallie went to the Mom’s club, then Hallie took the kids to Ghesquiere Park. Sara taught Hallie about couponing, and Mike discovered Pinterest. Uh oh. 

Our friend Jenny from California sent Eliza a beautiful blue sweater her mom crocheted. Just in time for winter! Photo to come soon. 

The grownups had a bit of a big kid play date on Saturday. After leaving the babies in the care of Jen and Sean and their kids, Hallie and Mike went with Sara and Jason first for a big breakfast at the Original Pancake House and then out to the “Big House” (Michigan Stadium) in Ann Arbor to watch U of Michigan play San Diego State. There were 110,707 of us attending, and this was the 234th consecutive game with over 100,000 attending. Crowded into our 12 inches of seat space apiece, we sang and cheered and booed and jeered as the Wolverines pummeled the Aztecs 28-7.

Mike wore the wrong colored jacket. Good thing he had on a Michigan shirt underneath! 

Mike has seen games at the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl, and watching Michigan play at home in front of such a big crowd was tremendous. We’ve attended BYU-Utah rivalry games, and based on what we saw for just an ordinary game here, the rivalry games at the Big House would put that small tiff to shame (sorry friends living in Utah, but it’s true). We sat in a sea of blue and maize dotted with wee red islands here and there. Every time Michigan did something (not just scoring), the band struck up Hail to the Victors (classic!), and the whole stadium joined in cheering on their team with fists raised high. When San Diego made a mistake, the band struck up Temptation, and at the end the Michigan fans in one voice yelled, “You Suck!” Tacky? Maybe. Effective and funny? For sure! All that said, Mike grew up watching Michigan occasionally come into Trojan Country to play the Rose Bowl, and under those circumstances he was more than happy to see Michigan lose and lose hard. Moreover, as a part-time Utah fan, Mike would have loved to see the stadium silent three years ago when another team in red kept the raucous home team fans in check.

"Hail, Hail to Michigan" 

QB Denard Robinson runs it in for a TD.

We couldn’t ask for better weather. While rain had threatened in the morning, all we got at game time was a mix of sun and cloud with temps in the 60s. After the game, we walked over to Hallie’s friend Renee’s tailgate party. These folks don’t mess around. They had three TVs hooked up to a generator and a satellite feed to watch the game, and they had prepared a Mexican food-themed lunch/dinner (Renee bases the menu for each game on the region or mascot of the rival team). We didn’t stick around to indulge too much, and instead we went to the Mexican Town Restaurant in southwest Detroit to do our themed dining. Quesadillas y un burrito mojado. ¡Qué ricos!

Tailgating, complete with blue margaritas and a satellite dish

Why go to the game when you can watch it with commentary? 

We got back to our kids just in time to put them to bed (well, almost). Landon told us all about his day at Bryan’s soccer game and Jen’s company party at CJ Barrymore’s, where he played laser tag and drove a go kart. Meanwhile, Eliza crawled around and charmed everyone with her cuteness. We don’t think they missed us a bit.