First and foremost, happy birthday Madison! Second.... wow, boys. That was a spectacular weekend, and we may need a few blog posts to do it justice. I don't know if my post will be big enough to do the job.
Thursday night, Nick, Nate, Ben, Jake and Mary Beth arrived and we had a nice evening at home with some cribbage (Jake dominated) and late night pizza. The Buyskes and Fabianne (Des's sister) arrived the next day and the cousins toured around Chicago a bit while Des and I were at work. Friday evening we went to an art gallery where a friend of ours had an exhibit opening then out on the town for dinner. Because we had to get up early on Saturday, we went home fairly early and intended to get to bed. We were having so much fun, though, that bedtime turned into about 2:00 a.m. Joey and Mike played a little guitar. Matt, Jake, Nate and I had a memorable discussion out on the deck (where Nick slept!). The girls did girl stuff.
Our place is not very big. But with a little creativity, everybody was able to cram in there . . .
Then in the morning it was time to hit the road for South Bend for the big game! Here we are in the elevator leaving our place...
We battled some rain on the road and at the tailgate, but it didn't dampen our spirits. The wetter the better! A friend of mine from law school had his tailgating van all set up for us and we grilled burgers, had a few beers, and even had a little dance party pre-game. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. (Coo coo ka CHA!)
Everybody got into the game, thanks largely to Matt's connections. What a rollercoaster it was. This is how we felt for about half of the game:
And this is how I prefer to remember it:
After the game, we were all pretty depressed for a couple of hours, but we went back to our tailgate and made the best of it. Before you know it, we were having fun again. So much so that we were the very last people in the parking lot at the end of the night! Then we went to my friend's house to hang out and hit the sack. Des whipped up some late-night pasta for the boys, which I missed due to a little nap. Hard to keep up with these guys!
On Sunday morning, the Buyske boys headed back to Chicago to catch (or narrowly miss) their flights. The rest of us had a nice walk around campus . . .
Overall, it's difficult to put into words how much I loved having everyone come up for the weekend. This is such a wonderful family that we are all a part of and it warms my heart to see the cousins make the effort to get together like this. Miss you guys already.