season opener

I've been thinking a lot since Andrew and I became parents on cultivating this sense of home with our family.  Family first.  I want Henry and Nelle and any future siblings to be close and want to be together and spend time together and not just because I'm making them.  And surely some of this happens by chance, but how do we foster and encourage these relationships that last well beyond us? 

I have some ideas, surely some that will pan out and others that will fizzle, but as we started off towards Manhattan on Saturday morning, the Tahoe loaded up with overnight bags packed, food, two kids, one dog, and all of us clad in purple, I thought this has to be a start.  We drove north into the country through sunshine and past rows and rows of golden browning corn stalks, the Flint Hills, herds of cows, through small towns and 

into Manhattan for the annual Family Reunion.

This day rivals all other holidays for me.  It's that good.

The family that plays together, stays together.  

Gosh, it is a lot of work tailgating and game-attending with two littles in tow.  

(Especially when the biggest was too excited to nap, and refused to sit still once we got to our seats for the game to start.)  We won't do it every game this season, but I just love the idea of our kids growing up playing football in between the rows of trucks in the parking lot, eating too much dessert after tailgate food while I'm not looking (not that this actually happened...ha!), and being part of our family tradition. 

Favorite parts of the day:

1.  Walking with Henry and Nelle from my parents car towards our tailgate, and when Henry got his first glimpse of the football stadium and the parking lot filling up with purple, he said excitedly, "Look at this!!"

2. Henry sitting down with Nelle and giving her one of our two footballs, saying "Nelle likes football" so matter of fact.

2. We've had our same season tickets for four years now (I think?) and so the die-hard season ticket holders around us have grown accustomed to our little group...and growing families.  Last year, we brought Henry to several games with us and passed him from my shrinking lap while I was pregnant with Nelle to Andrew's.  The couple in front of us just laughed when we showed up this year and said, "you had a girl!".  Surprise!  

Might as well take advantage of that two and under free rule while we can this year because we need more seats next season.  

3. Lifting Henry and Nelle up and down after a touchdown and Nelle grinning at the rows behind us.

4.  Nelle reaching for me during the second quarter because girlfriend was tuckered out from charming everyone around us and 

just needed to snuggle in with her mama before bedtime.

5.  Right before we met my parents to send the kiddos home for bed, we let Henry run up and down the south end zone grassy hill, surely made for parents of small children in mind when they were completing renovations.  In a matter of minutes, he has a crowd of toddler girls following him up and down the hill until he stops at the top, unprompted, to do the K-State cheer we've been working on with him for the past week.  Dying.

He maybe needs a little more practice.  As does Andrew recording video.  Ha.

I love his all-knowing smirk at the end. 

It's going to be a great season.