Road Trip! University of Wyoming vs. Air Force

Last weekend we made a very quick road trip.  We left Friday, drove 7 hours to my Mom's house in Colorado, spent the night and then visited briefly on Saturday with my family there.  Saturday evening we headed up to Laramie, Wyoming to watch the University of Wyoming take on Air Force.

Making faces to pass the time...

I didn't realize until I loaded my pictures onto the computer that I didn't take any in Colorado.  We did a bit of shopping, then visited and watched football on tv, so there wasn't much to take pictures of.  The UW game was at night - kickoff at 8:15.

We were headed to our seats and the band was making lots of racket under the bleachers... right outside the Air Force locker room, so we stopped to enjoy them.  The five year old usually has problems with crowds and too much noise, but he wanted to see the cymbals and trumpets and trombones.  He's very into instruments, but not really into music, so it's kind of a delicate balance with him.

The band marched before the game - pretty cool.

The little boys were especially excited about the horse. They ride out with the big flag next to him to bring the team onto the field, and then they run him across the field with every touchdown UW scores.

It's blurry, but this is a picture of the horse and flag.  Taking pictures was tricky because this was a night game.

Following the horse are three men carrying W-Y-O flags, followed by the team.

The five year old also loved the mascot - Pistol Pete.

He was dressed in a uniform in honor of Military Appreciation Night, which to me is just funny since they were going up against Air Force.  

When the Air Force team came out on the field, some booed as people will for the rival, but I couldn't do that.  Our son is in the Air Force, and even if he wasn't, I appreciate the work the military does, and would never boo any of them.  I thought it was in poor taste that anyone would.

Wyoming was a little sluggish in the first half, but they played that way last week too, and still managed to win.

The weather was great, considering we were worried about rain and very cold temperatures.  We did wrap the boys up a little better later in the game, but I kept my light jacket on the whole time and was never cold.  It was funny - when we began packing for the trip, I realized that most of the coats we have for the boys especially - are blue and grey - Air Force colors.  And my husband took the Air Force slicker our son gave him.  We would have looked like misfits :)

Okay, so some fan gear shouldn't necessarily be worn by everyone - ha.

 It works for the kids though.  (This is a friend, not one of ours).

In honor of Military Appreciation Night, the halftime show was very patriotic - the marching band did several patriotic songs ...

There was a huge flag...

And fireworks.  We didn't know the fireworks were coming, and that would normally be a huge problem for the five year old to deal with, but he did really well, and once he got over the initial shock, actually seemed like he really enjoyed it.

In the second half, UW got down to business.

And the three year old fell asleep.  He was up late the night before and I let him stay up and visit with his little cousin rather than napping.  We thought he would nap on the drive up to the game, but he didn't.

I love that the five year old was able to enjoy the experience.  Sometimes his autism makes it really hard for him to deal with crowds and noise, but he did amazingly well.

And the ten year old had fun making a total fool of himself.  He and his friend (the kid with the Pistol Pete hat) were trying to get the tv cameras to notice them, so they were doing goofy dances to all the hyped up music, and clowning around most of the time.  He had a lot of fun.  And it was thanks to him that we even came.  The youth football league in our town provided free tickets for the football kids, and discounted tickets to their parents, so we otherwise would have missed a great game.

We were behind until almost the end of the game.  But the real reason I took this picture is to show the mind-games they play.  Welcome to 7,220 feet elevation.  Just a small reminder on the big screen right next to the opponent's section ... which flashed that number the entire game.

Oh, and in case they didn't want to look up at that, it is also written on the field right in front of the visitor section :)  You know, just a friendly reminder.

Final score - Wyoming 17, Air Force 13.

Winners.

Not winners.  But I'm still thankful for them :)

We had originally planned to drive back to my Mom's to spend the night, but figured that was counterproductive since it's close to 1.5 hours in the opposite direction from our house, and we were planning to head home the next day.  But we hadn't reserved a room either, so we had to drive toward home.  We left town around 12:30 am, drove awhile, then napped awhile, and drove the rest of the way after the sun came up.  We ended up getting home around 9:30 am, which wasn't too bad considering we took time to sleep.

Like the way he shaded his face?

I did most of the driving.  Hubby drives for a living, and yet every time we take these trips it seems like I do the majority of the driving.  No matter.  I can't sleep in a moving vehicle.  I wake up in terror if the road is rough or if he swerves, because my body is telling me we're going to wreck.  So it isn't at all restful, and I'm constantly worried that he's tired and not admitting it.  Ha.  I have serious trust issues when it comes to driving, thanks to a bad accident I was in years ago.

When we were in Colorado, my sister bought the ten year old a special gift to reward him for doing so well on his savings plan and being able to purchase his bow.  He was thrilled to see that the shirt fit over his football pads too.  (We don't let him wear it like that - just for the picture.)

So there you have it.  The next Manning in my house - ha.  (Yeah.  Apart from the fact that this one prefers to be a lineman, not a quarterback.)