Utah vs. Notre Dame November 13, 2010

Utah 3 Notre Dame 28

This year we went to Notre Dame.  How can you miss an opportunity to go to Notre Dame when you get a chance.  Unfortunately, Utah lost, even though we were favored.  This was the second week in a row with a disappointing loss, after we lost to TCU last week.  It was reported to be a 10 to 40% chance of rain, and it rained pretty hard through the first half and the poor game didn't help either.

Here we are at the stadium with the field behind us.  If you look closely you can see "Touchdown Jesus" in the background.

Here is a picture of the fly over "Touchdown Jesus".

Before the game we were able to spend a while exploring the campus.  This is us in front of "Touchdown Jesus"

And here with "1st Down Moses"

Here is Notre Dame's pipe band marching through campus before the game.

While we were eating lunch before the game we saw Eric Weddle a former Utah player and current San Diego Charger player.  He was eating at the same place, and allowed us to have a picture with Alex.

Even though we lost, it was really a fun experience, and the rest of our trip in Chicago was lots of fun too....

CHICAGO

Eli's Cheesecake Factory

We found lots of fun things to do in Chicago with the kids.  The first day we were there, Friday, we thought we'd have a quiet day and picked a short thing to do to get our feet wet and get a little oriented to the city.  It didn't exactly work out that way.  We decided to go to Eli's Cheesecake Factory.  We found out that for $3.00 you could take a tour of the factory and you get a free slice of cheesecake.  As much as our family loves cheesecake, this was going to be a fun activity.  Eli's Cheesecake is well known around the country and it came highly recommended. 

When we got there we found out that a TV show on the Food Network called "Kid in a Candy Shop" was filming a show, and they asked us if they could interview us for the show.  They gave us the tour for free, and gave us a free full size cheesecake, plus all the cheesecake we could eat during the filming of the show.  They would film us eating the cheesecake, and ask us how much we liked it. 

In this picture you can see the film crew behind us.  They would put several different kinds of cheesecake in front of us, and we'd have to make the kids wait to eat any until they were filming.  That was the hard part, especially with Ella.

The people that worked at Eli's were so nice and accommodating.  I think they were glad to have kids there for the show.  They continued to bring things to keep the kids happy, since we were there filming for 3 hours.  Ella really liked the hair net hats they gave us.  Ella did really good on film until she saw us on the small TV's and she started pointing and shouting "Ella, Ella".

We really had lots of fun, and of course the cheesecake was really delicious.  Eli's is supposed to email us and let us know when they are airing this episode.  It sounds like it is going to be in February or March 2011.  Who knows how much we will really be in it, but it was a great experience anyway.


Willis Tower (Sears Tower) Skydeck and Millenium Park:
On Sunday, we spent the day walking around downtown Chicago.  We were with Bevan's parents and his sister, Melissa and her husband.  We went to the Willis Tower, previously known as Sears Tower.  This is the tallest building in North America with 108 floors.

When you are up on the skydeck there are these glass windows that are out on the ledge so you are actually standing 1,400 feet above the ground and can see everything below.  The kids were really brave standing out there.

Especially Ella, she had no problem standing out there.  It is amazing how we get more scared as we get older. 

We also went to the famous Millenium Park.  Below are fun pictures by the "bean" artwork at the park.  It was fun to get cool photos with us and the city view reflecting in the artwork.

Melissa with Alex & Irena

Alex acting like a lion in front of the Art Institute of Chicago

Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and Field Museum:

On Monday, we went to the Shedd Aquarium.  This was a featured place to go with the Chicago City Pass, but we found out that there are several days that you can go to the museums for free, we were able to go to three museums for free.  It was quite a bargain, since most of them were $15 - $25 per person, that really adds up when there is 5 of us.

Shedd Aquarium

Here Irena & Alex were watching the diving show

Future astronauts at the Adler Planetarium

In front of "Sue" the T-rex at the Field Museum

Ella & Alex wearing masks at the museum

Wisconsin - Jelly Belly Factory:

Wednesday was our last day in Chicago.  We were staying in a city called Vernon Hills which was 30 minutes north of downtown Chicago, and it was 30 minutes from the border of Wisconsin.  There is the Jelly Belly Factory just over the border.  So we took a quick trip to Wisconsin to visit the factory.

If you have ever been to the Jelly Belly factory in San Fransisco, it isn't as good as that tour, but it was fun because we could ride in a train, plus you can never go wrong with free Jelly Belly's and a free tour.  It was the perfect ending to a fun trip.



1999 Las Vegas Bowl - Utah vs. Fresno State Bulldogs 12/18/1999

This was the first game Bevan and I went to together after we were married. We drove to St. George and stayed at my work's house in St. George (actually Ivins) and then drove to Las Vegas for the game. We just spent the weekend, so we didn't really plan anything else.

This was the first time we had been to Sam Boyd Stadium for UNLV. When we got to Las Vegas we didn't have a problem finding UNLV, of course this was before GPS, so we drove around UNLV campus for about an hour trying to find Sam Boyd Stadium and getting very frustrated. Finally we realized that the stadium wasn't on UNLV campus as would have been expected. I think we finally had to stop at a gas station and ask. Since this time Bevan and I have gotten really good at navigating and planning.

Utah won the game 17 - 16. A great start to a new tradition. One of my favorite pictures of Bevan and I is from this game, unfortunately that was before we had a digital camera so I'll have to find the picture and scan it....watch for more to come.

Travelling Ute Fans

Back in 2000 Bevan and I made the decision to go to all Utah Football games for the 2000 season. We thought it would be fun to do some travelling before we had kids. Little did we know at the time we started a new family tradition. 2000 was a great year because it was feasible for us to travel to all the away games, which included Cal Berkley, Utah State, San Diego State, New Mexico, and Wyoming. I'm planning to start posting about our trips and game information.

As of today, we figured we have travelled to 22 away games. (This only includes 6 in state games). So you can look for lots of fun posts.

Here is all the game information on the games we have gone to since we have been married:

12/18/1999 Las Vegas Bowl (Fresno State Bulldogs) Las Vegas, NV W, 17-16 Sam Boyd Stadium, Attendance: 28,227

9/9/2000 University of California Berkley Bears, CA L, 24-21 Attendance: 43,500

9/30/2000 Utah State University Aggies Logan, UT W, 35-14 Romney Stadium Attendance: 29,814

10/14/2000 San Diego State University Aztecs San Diego, CA W, 21-7 Qual Comm Stadium Attendance: 17,498

10/28/2000 University of New Mexico Lobos Albuquerque, NM L, 10-3 Attendance: 21,366

11/11/2000 University of Wyoming Cowboys Laramie, WY W, 34-0 Attendance:10,195

8/31/2002 Utah State University Aggies Logan, UT W, 23-3 Romney Stadium Attendance: 30,757

10/12/2002 San Diego State University Aztecs San Diego, CA L, 36-17 Qual Comm Stadium Attendance: 20,410

9/6/2003 Texas A&M Aggies College Station, TX L, 28-26 Kyle Field Attendance: 74,019

11/22/2003 Brigham Young University Cougars Provo, UT W, 3-0 Lavell Edwards Stadium Attendance: 64,486

9/11/2004 University of Arizona Wildcats Tucson, AZ W, 23-6 Arizona Stadium Attendance: 52,790

9/18/2004 Utah State University Aggies Logan, UT W, 48-6 Romney Stadium Attendance: 24,750

1/1/2005 Fiesta Bowl (Pittsburgh Panthers) Tempe, AZ W, 35-7 Sun Devil Stadium
Attendance: 73,519

9/2/2005 North Carolina Tar Heels Chapel Hill, NC L, 31-17 Attendance: 50,000

9/2/2006 UCLA Bruins Pasadena, CA L, 31-10 Rose Bowl Attendance: 59,709

9/16/2006 Utah State University Aggies Logan, UT W, 48-0 Romney Stadium Attendance: 20,082

10/5/2007 Louisville Cardinals Louisville, KY W, 44-35 Papa John's Cardinal Attendance: 40,894

8/30/2008 University of Michigan Wolverines Ann Arbor, MI W, 25-23 Michigan Stadium (Big House) Attendance: 108,421

9/13/2008 Utah State University Aggies Logan, UT W, 58-10 Romney Stadium Attendance: 10,061

1/2/2009 Sugar Bowl (Alabama Crimson Tide) New Orleans, LA W, 31-17 Superdome
Attendance: 71,872

9/12/2009 San Jose State University Spartans San Jose, CA W, 24-14 Spartan Stadium Attendance: 23,684

9/19/2009 University of Oregon Ducks Eugene, OR L, 31-24 Autzen Stadium Attendance: 58,017