Don't Snore, It's a Campus Tour

A two week blogging break. Oh my. My evenings keep slipping away from me somehow. I doubt anyone wants to see photos of laundry mountains, of sinks piled high with dishes, of hubby doing lots of work at home, of two-plus hour bedtime routines, or of my nursing the oft-awaking Sweet P. You have your own sink and laundry mountains, right? Unless the answer is "yes," then don't answer that.

I'm going to cop out by offering a little photo essay of a weekend trip we took with the family.

When hubby and I talked about taking the kids to Notre Dame for a football weekend, I pictured a nice, crisp autumn day. I planned and packed for the perfect fall day. We'd enjoy some tailgating and crunch leaves as we walked around campus with the tots.

What we got was the perfect summer day with fall foliage in the background. I hate to be a complainer because I know what it's like to tailgate when it's freezing cold or pouring down rain, but I'll just say that it was a bit too hot for my taste. When there's an awesome spread of food on a card table, and I'm too hot to enjoy any of it and too hot to drink anything but water (no Diet Coke for me, much less a beer), then you know it's hot.

The heat got me a little cranky for the first half of game day, which means I didn't take any pictures of the tailgating scene. Next year when I'm there on the actual perfect autumn Saturday, I'll document that part of the college football experience because there's plenty to see and talk about.

Despite the heat, we had a lot of fun. The dads and the four year-olds went to the game. My mom and my sister LAP and I walked around campus with the other kids until the four year-olds had enough and needed to be met at the stadium door. Who knew that during the game, there are hundreds of packs of women and grandparents stroller-ing around campus? I should have guessed, but it was one of the first times I'd really been outside the stadium during the game for a long period.

I also learned that a student center convenience store is like heaven on earth for a six year-old (my niece Fancy), that there are now hydration stations where students can fill their water bottles, and that one of my mom's memories of visiting campus fifteen years ago was that the recycling/trash situation was really confusing.

This photo essay is turning out kind of lame as I realize I took zero photos on Saturday. I may have posed for one though (just taken on my sister LAP's phone so less pathetic than it seems).

Someone's name is engraved on a plaque near Subway and the bathrooms. NTB.

I'll just say that game day ended with an Irish victory, cousins playing together, and Papa John's pizza so win, win, win.

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the empty Ice Mountain case--the "treasure chest"--that Bub filled with bottle caps, empty water bottles, leaves, grass, and assorted trash and insisted on carrying from one parking lot to another and then taking home to Chicago. Damn.

I did take some good photos on Sunday morning when hubby, the kids, and I walked around campus with my parents.

My dad's been going to ND games for forty years or more.

The Main Building known for its Golden Dome

A view of from beneath the Dome.

Hubby and I got engaged at this site, The Grotto, and were married on campus.

Not the best photo (note my gray roots and muffin top), but very special to be there as a family.

Grammy and Pop with the troops.

Bub meditates on the beauty of the season.

We ended our low-key campus tour in the visitor center, where I decided to sit down on a couch and feed Sweet P before we hit the road to head back to Chicago. I was feeling a little awkward about nursing her there (despite having the hooter hider), but then I realized there were three different statues of Madonna and child within fifteen feet of us, not that I am comparing myself to Mary . . .

This photo left me thinking that someday when we move to a new house, I would like to have my living room ceiling painted in some cool way.

All in all, we had a lovely weekend. Bub was more interested in asking questions about campus and trying to figure out why it was special to us than I expected. I look forward to going back as a family many more times. In the summers, the university has a family dorm where you can stay with your kids. Now, that's probably one of those things that sounds like more fun than it actually is, but give us a few years and we'll check it out.

What about you? What special places from your past have you taken children to visit? How have you spent your autumn weekends this year?