Olive's 1st Game Day at Notre Dame

I wanted to do a full game day recap because we had such a great time at Notre Dame last weekend.  Consider yourself warned it's a picture overload, but I wanted to remember everything about this day.

Pregame Tailgating:

Olive was working hard on her throwing, rolling in the grass and getting grass stains on her pants.  She was excited to be out of the car and able to run around.  She loved watching all the other kids playing and ran around saying hello to the other tailgaters.

 We've talked/dreamed about tailgating for YEARS, but have always lived so far away that it wasn't really an option until this year.  We had a great set up and it was so much fun!

 Anytime Olive makes a serious/skeptical/stink face, Kevin makes sure to tell me that Olive looks just like me... I'm not quite sure what to think of that.

A definite highlight for Olive was making everyone a "salad".

She picked the grass herself, pretended to "mixa" things and then delivered a salad to each of us.  This kept her entertained for the longest time.  She kept saying "I cooking!"

 We packed up our camp and headed on campus.

We stopped at all the major sites on campus to snap some pictures before the game.

Kevin and his parents.

 Kevin knows that I love taking pictures so he said, 

"Maybe we'll end up taking our Christmas card picture today!"

 Touchdown Jesus!

 The weather was perfect and Fall was just starting to arrive on campus.

 We sent Kevin and his parents off to the game and Olive and I were off to explore.  

We started with a snack by Touchdown Jesus and listened to the band.

I pointed out all the landmarks on campus and tried to tell her about Kevin's college life there.  She was mostly interested in spotting flowers, naming their colors and asking me to pick one for her.  That and laughing at all the squirrels running around on campus.

 The mums were just starting to bloom.

 We made our way to The Grotto and said a few prayers for our family.

The flowers were lovely all over campus.

 The ducks and geese were excited we brought them a snack.

 We visited Kevin's old dorm.

This GO IRISH banner is gigantic.

It's made out of bed sheets and is about 5 sheets high and 20 wide.

It really is massive.

 We crunched leaves.

We couldn't have planned a nicer day.

 It didn't take long for Olive to fall asleep.  I kept walking around campus enjoying the sites and sounds while she slept.  I followed the game play by play on my phone and loved hearing the cheers and boos from the stadium all over campus.  It should also be noted that this was Bun-Bun's first time on campus, too :)

 It got cloudy, but campus was still beautiful.

 Olive woke up and was ready for more sightseeing.

We played football right outside the stadium 

and could hear everything that was going on at the game. 

 We picked up leaves, collected rocks, watched ants and just enjoyed being out and about.  Olive had a great day and it was fun to see all of the other families with little kids milling around campus during the game.

 Sunset on a wonderful game day!

The Irish won 62-27