Best5Zach Outdoors: Weekend of 9/7/13 The Arkansas State Game

I don't know about any of you other sports fans with kids, but a funny thing has happened as we have expanded our family.

When we had just Aubree, we made around 4-5 home games a year.
When we had Griffn and Aubree wasn't playing sports, the number dropped to around 2 games a year.
When Aubree started sports (which means, I started coaching) the number dropped to 1 game a year.
When Gavin was born last year, we went to ZERO games.

Which means that Aubree has been to approximately 10 games (she didn't go to all the games we went to, since it was easy to get a baby sitter for 1 kid), Griffin has been to maybe 2 games, though he was too young to remember, and Gavin has been to zero. I want to make sure that all my kids get to experience life equally, so I felt that Griffin was getting "middle-kidded" on football. By his age, Aubree knew all the cheers, knew what to cheer for, and had a good idea of what was going on. Griffin does not.

When I ordered season tickets this year, I knew that making it to a bunch of games wasn't feasible. But I was going to make every effort to take all the kids to at least 1. Well, that opportunity came this weekend. I couldn't find anyone to buy the ASU tickets, so instead of wasting them, I decided that we would load up and head to the game.

Of course, that's an effort in and of itself. Going to games back when we had no kids, or even just 1, was as easy as loading one small bag on Friday morning and hitting the road. We had a lot of friends who lived down there, so we always had a place to stay. In the old Camaro, we could make it to Auburn in 2 hours and 45 minutes. Don't do that math. Alyse and I would stroll in about 4pm and the weekend would start.

We've played that game since 2003. Of course, a lot has changed in 10 years. While we still have a lot of friends who live in Auburn, they all have kids. And we all have REAL jobs now that require REAL hours. Packing for a trip down there isn't one bag anymore. It's a bag for us. A bag for the kids. An inflatable mattress. A pack and play. Blah Blah Blah. And now we can't even leave on Friday. Aubree has soccer on Saturday mornings. And when you get on the road, you are lucky to make it in 4 hours.

So, we were up and packed Saturday morning and we hit the soccer fields. After getting DRILLED (as usual) we jumped in the Yukon and started south. Amazingly, we had little traffic and we only had to stop for lunch.

We made it to Auburn around 2:30 and got to my best friends house shortly after. After unloading our baggage, we loaded back up (plus 1 with Kevin) and headed to Auburn. our secret parking spot was open as usual and we journeyed to the Auburn Alumni Association's tent for free food, drink, and entertainment. Get all the hot dogs, chips, and coke you want, hang out with Aubie, meet the Cheerleaders. Now THAT's how you tailgate!

After stuffing our faces, listening to the band, and meeting cheerleaders, we made it to our seats. The game wasn't as close as I predicted in my ASU Game Preview, but that was ok. It made for a stress free game.
We got to our seats just in time to snap some pics and catch the War Eagle Flyover.

As expected,. Aubree was all into the game as usual. Griffin was....Griffin. He must have drank a gallon of water and Coke, which required him to visit the boys room a ton of times. He wanted this, he wanted that. He wanted to run and jump. But, he had a good time. Gavin, on the other hand, was perfectly content to sit in his stroller and watch the game. That was truly a blessing!

And when the game was over...the long walk to the car. Luckily, I didn't have to carry any kids!

The next morning, while the adults were recovering, I banished the kids outside to "build a fort". Since Kevin lives on his own spread, I could let them play outside without worrying about them playing in the street. This is what they built. Pretty impressive, I'd say!