Last Football Game / First Tailgating

We’ve been able to make it to three home football games this fall at Lehigh. The third, and last, home game was on Saturday. Lehigh vs. Colgate. It was an absolutely spectacular day – perfect football weather. And we planned for a special first: J-M family tailgating! Before we had kids, Braydon and I did some tailgating at Lehigh football games (the first experience with tailgating in either of our lives), and quickly came to understand the allure of it. But as soon as K & O came along, our tailgating came to a screeching halt. We decided earlier this fall, however, that it was time to give it a good-old-family-try. The boys had started to notice the tailgating in the parking lot; had started to show interest in it and ask about it; and were completely excited about the idea of us doing it. And so, we did. We packed up a very simple tailgate spread, and set out early to the football game. And… as is so typical of K & O (and M for that matter)… they all acted as if they were old pro’s at it – as if they’d been tailgating their whole life. We had barely parked the car before the boys had the football out and were tossing it in the parking lot~

 

And they had no problem getting right into the full swing of tailgating: the eating and the drinking~

It was a lot of fun. A couple of friends dropped by our tiny little tailgate party, we chatted it up with some of the tailgating-neighbors, and we just had a darn good time. All three bambinos agreed that we should probably tailgate for every home game next year. The two parents agreed that we’ll aim to make our tailgates increasingly more elaborate in the years to come (Bloody Mary’s anyone???). But soon it was time to head to the field. And get settled in to our spot on the grass behind the end zone. Kyle and Owen love going to these games. The other three of us like it a lot, but mainly do it for the sake of spending a few hours of fresh-air-and-family-bonding with our sports-fanatics-boys. (Even though, for much of the game, those boys abandon us for socializing with the college crowd… if you look closely at the photo below you’ll spot them far away from us tossing the football with some frat boys)~

Here they are (again, if you look closely, you’ll spot them) participating in their favorite LU home-game ritual: clamoring with the big boys to try to catch the football during a field goal~ 

Meera tolerates all of this quite well, all things considered~

From the tailgating, to the game (Kyle always needs to get at least one order of fries), it was all good. And by the end of the afternoon, we had one very sleepy-2-year-old for the drive home.

It has been a fun fall of football here in J-M-land.