Niners v. Cardinals

Sunday was our first San Francisco 49er game of the season.  Sam and I brought Jackie and Joe to the game with us, and we had a great time tailgating with the McHones and Oliveros before we headed over to see the Ward Family.  

 We got to celebrate Matt and Whitney's baby boy who will be joining the family in April 2014.

Mike, Carina, Kelly, Dad

 Carina and Mom

 Jackie and I at the game

Lovely ladies and our amazing gentlemen!

Sam and I can't wait to go back in December for the last home game of the regular season.  

49er Faithful Headed 'Home'

Tonight, Sam and I are flying up to San Francisco to spend what we hope will be a beautiful fall weekend in Northern California.  It will be our first trip home since we got engaged in August, and the first time I've seen my Dad and sister, Carina.  As you can imagine, I am really looking forward to being back in my hometown.  

While we're home, we're going to be celebrating Carina passing her nursing examination and being able to look for a job.  She is the first nurse in our family, so obviously we're all overjoyed and incredibly proud of her.  In fact, she's been home since last weekend so Sam and I will be a bit late to her party, but it will be really good to spend time as a family all the same.

While Carina's accomplishment deserves a good deal of attention, we originally planned this vacation so that we could make it home for the 49er game on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.  

Since it's the last season at Candlestick, Sam and I are making an effort to make it up for as many games as we can - which is looking like two so far.  Unfortunately, we're pretty limited in nights that the flight schedule and game schedule line up for us.  

Focusing on the positives, though, we're bringing Jackie and Joe to the game.  I am really excited to see them both and get to share something that means so much to me with a couple that Sam and I are looking forward to sharing lots of future milestones with.  Plus, Carina and Jackie will get a chance to meet again and hopefully bond a little bit over my bachelorette party planning.  Dad is awesome and he's going to sit with the McHones so that Mom, Carina, Sam, Jackie, Joe and I can sit in Papa's seats.  

It will also be really fun to see the whole Tailgate Crew.  Sam has been getting ribbed for years about not proposing to me, so I'm excited to show off my beautiful engagement ring and let him get all the credit.  

In addition to the McHones and Tailgate Crew, we'll get to see Matt, Kelly and Mike Ward along with Chris and Whitney (I hope).  That will be really fun because in addition to celebrating our engagement, Whit and Matt announced that they're expecting their first baby in April 2014 - so we have a LOT to be cheerful and excited about.  I am planning on bringing a couple bottles of champagne to pop in the parking lot. 

View from Papa's seats Jan 12, 2013 (San Francisco v. Green Bay)

Football Season 2013

This is going to be a very bittersweet football season for me.  As you (hopefully) know, my family has had season tickets to the 49ers since Kezar Stadium, and at the end of this season, the 49ers current stadium at Candlestick Park will be torn down.  The new stadium will be built in Santa Clara, and it looks to be quite a work of art.  Unfortunately, Papa's seats on the 45 yard line, 15 rows up behind the 49ers bench were going to be $80,000 a piece for the personal seat licenses (PSLs) - that doesn't even include the price of the tickets!

So, Papa gave up his seats.  Dad is going to have one seat in the upper deck with some of his friends from high school, who we tailgate with every Sunday.  The plan is to buy tickets comparable to what we are accustom to when we want to go to games, and even if we were to spend $2,000 for all 6 (now 7, with Sam) of us to go together, it would be significantly cheaper than buying season tickets that we don't even use every week because we only have 4 family members currently living in the Bay Area.

What makes this season especially tough is that we were so close to our 6th Super Bowl victory last February and I was incredibly invested in the season as you can see here, here, here, and especially here in NOLA.  This year we have another great team, and it's going to be really tough to say goodbye to The Stick when it just seems to feel like we're returning to our glory days.

NOLA Photos

Dad, Dominic, Robin & Mom at Pat O'Brien's, our first stop after arriving in Louisiana 

Bourbon Street our first night in town

We met up with Ruby and Tracy

Then we had the whole crew!

The girls

Saturday we met up with my friends, and Carina arrived!

We met Dwight Clark, and Mom's lifelong dream came true!

Dad and his girls on Game Day

Here we go...

So I'm sitting at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, waiting for my flight to Oakland to board.  It would seem my Super Bowl 47 NOLA weekend is underway!  I am here over an hour early, per usual, because that's how I roll.  Gotta love flight-induced anxiety... I am always worried I will miss my plane!

I worked from home this afternoon so I could soak up every last minute with Hunter Puppy before I left tonight.  We cuddled, he napped, we took a couple walks.  He was so bummed when my suitcase came out last night, and today he tried to lay in it while I was packing.  It was like he wanted to come too.

I said goodbye to Hunter about 45 minutes ago, and left him in his crate, which is when the guilt set in.  Our new pet sitter (recommended by dear friends who love their pets as much as we love Hunter) should be arriving in about an hour give or take to spend the night with him.

I am so worried he will be restless and up all night because everything is so unfamiliar.  I am worried he will bark or scratch at the door and keep her up.  I am probably over-thinking everything because she as assured me several times after meeting Hunter that while I may be convinced I own a little terror, he is really a sweetheart.  And she's really good about texting and checking in and letting me know how he is doing so that I don't have to suffer through 'not knowing'.

But it's Sam's Golden Weekend.  I feel like I should be spending my time with the boys and not going off on this amazing trip.  It feels horrible to leave them behind!

Hopefully once I land in Oakland and get some food I will feel better.  Good God I am so hungry!  I told Dad I would like to grab dinner with he and Mom since I am flying during the dinner hour, but that might have been a mistake.  Or I should have at least had some kind of snack before I left.  But again, I was maximizing my time with my puppy.

Mom and Dad are really jazzed, and I am sure I will feed off their energy.  Dad keeps telling us that this is "going to be an adventure" and we're going to have to roll with the punches because it's unlikely we'll have an uneventful experience.  But that is exactly what this will be, an experience.

Papa called me a two nights ago to ask if I was excited yet and I told him it still hadn't sunken in.  He promised me that this will be something I remember for the rest of my life- my first Super Bowl.  Just like my Dad and Uncle Mark had their first Super Bowl experience with Papa.

Tomorrow our charted Southwest plane takes off from Oakland at 9 AM and we land in NOLA around noon PST.  I can't even imagine how that is going to be- a 4 hour flight with a bunch of Super Bowl 47 bound 49er faithful on the quest for six and to extend our title as team with the longest winning streak at the Super Bowl.  It could be the beginning of a very alcoholic weekend.  I wish Carina were coming with us, but she flies in from Denver on Saturday because she has class tomorrow she can't skip.

I will leave you with the packing advice Dad gave me last night: #1 Bring every piece of 49er gear you own.  #2 Pack lots of hangover remedies.  Check, and check, Dad.  I am as ready as I will ever be.  And I am vaguely aware that this is going to be something unlike anything I have seen before.  Something I cannot even imagine (which is saying a lot for me).  And like all great adventures seem to start out on page one:

So it begins...

MNF with Kaepernick

So what can I say?  Today I worked a 9.5 hour day, went shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, stuffing, & cranberries down; sweet potatoes and asparagus to go), and got dinner started in time to watch the Niners Monday Night Football Kickoff.  Oh the life of a modern woman! 

We're almost to the 10 minute mark of the 3rd quarter and the Niners lead the Chicago Bears 27-0.  Boo-Yeah Bears! 

Colin Kaepernick is looking really good tonight, and it's his first pro start so I'm proud of him.  In fairness, the Bear's quarterback is out tonight as well so both quarterbacks are backups. 

I should really start folding Sam's laundry, but I just don't feel like doing housework tonight.  I already cleaned up everything from dinner... can't that just be enough tonight?  LOL.  He has a very light workload this week (thank you Thanksgiving!) and he was home by 6:30 tonight.  MNF is so much better when I have Sam to watch with instead of just Hunter.

Hunter, by the way, is doing much better since his run-in with my underwear.  I think he's completely back to good in fact.  We all went to Hunter's obedience lesson last night, followed by Chinese food take-out because we were craving soup.  :-)

I'm so excited to have the long weekend off, even if I have to work a few hours to keep from getting behind, it will be so nice to be able to go to the gym during the middle of the day, take Hunter on some longer walks (the poor guy hasn't had too many since the time change), and get some quality time in with Sammy.

Fall Back

Sam, Hunter and I have been enjoying the extra hour today.  We all slept in (Sam slept the longest because he is the most sleep deprived) but even Hunter managed not to wake too early.  And because the 49ers have a bye this week, we were able to really take advantage of the extra hour.

To celebrate our first Golden Weekend (where Sam has both days off) in town since September, I made bacon and toast for breakfast and cleaned the kitchen while Sam was sleeping. 

After breakfast, we headed to Costco where we stocked up on the essentials (TP, paper towels, dishwasher soap, etc.) and then stopped at Ralph's on our way home for the non-bulk grocery items.  It's funny how much more I enjoy running errands when Sam's with me. 

When we came home, we and made BLTs and strawberries for lunch and started a massive laundry project.  Good God, it is unbelievable how much laundry Sam amasses between Golden Weekends.  He has dress clothes, gym clothes, scrubs, you name it!  I have some laundry to do myself, including our bath towels.

We're having friends over for dinner tonight.  So now we're going to take Hunter out for a walk and then finish up our cleaning/laundry so that we can start prepping our dinner.  I'm excited!!!

Football Season

It's no secret that my family is Forty-Niner Faithful-  we bleed Red & Gold.  It has been a long wait this off-season, but the day is finally here: today, the 9ers faced the Packers at Lambeau Field.  And boy did we deliver.

We looked great- cohesive, together, practiced.  It was such a great way to get things rolling. We have a lot of people talking about how we're Super Bowl bound in 2013, but I think it's too early to make those predictions.  We have a much tougher schedule than we did last season, and the league stats show that it's unlikely that a team comes out of a slump with back-to-back conference championship performances.  We may have to wait until 2014.

I flew back from a wedding and arrived home at 3pm today.  Unfortunately, Sam had to work today so Hunter was the only one waiting for me at home.  We cuddled on the couch, talking to Mom during the last quarter of the game, as we all watched Alex Smith stave off Aaron Rogers to get the victory.

I think it might be time to make good on my threats and order Hunter a 49er jersey to wear on game day...