Trip to ND

Brian and I packed up the family and headed down to St. Charles, IL to stay with my Aunt and Uncle on Thursday night. It was a lot of fun. They have a little dog now, which the boys loved playing with. Whenever we visit them, we usually have our tradition of going to portillo's for yummy chicago dogs and french fries with melted cheese!! Sounds healthy, I know. After dinner we headed back for a bedtime snack of homemade peanut butter bars with hershey kisses on top....very tasty!

On Friday, we woke up to special animal pancakes! Then the boys were appropriately dressed for the ND atmosphere and we set off for the fun adventures that would await us. Once we arrived in South Bend, we ate lunch at King Gyro's...one of Brian's favorite places to eat in college. After lunch, we headed to campus.

We had talked up our trip to ND for weeks prior and the boys were thrilled when they could FINALLY see the Golden Dome!!

Brian had a lot of fun reminding the boys where all the important buildings were on campus. The stadium was open to the public so we took the boys down the tunnel and they got to see the football field and pose for a picture. Then we headed to the bookstore to, of course, buy some new ND clothes for T and J. After the bookstore, it was off to the golden dome to watch the marching band. Tom and Joe were naming all the instruments as they marched by....I must say they were pretty good at it.

After rehearsal, we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant with 6 adults and 6 kids (2 sets of twins) all 3 years and younger!! It was great to see Julia, Jason, and Eli again.

We lucked out on a hotel room Friday night. We had received a free night stay in a Holiday Inn and Brian was able to get us a room in Mishawaka.

On Saturday, we headed over to Angelo's tailgate. It was a lot of fun! I do have to admit, not as much fun in previous years because I was the ONLY female for at least the first hour. Of course, the food and drinks were spectacular and the boys had fun relaxing in their own size tailgating chairs eating their goods.

After watching the band march to the stadium, we headed back to chicago to watch the game with our friends Nick and Jess. Good times had by all there....good food, good drinks, good friends.

I'll post more pics on the next blog!