Notre Dame trip in October 2015--campus tour

In October, we took a weekend trip to South Bend to take the 3 older kids (and Celeste) to see a Notre Dame football game!

Now before you say something like "Lucky!" or "You're just bragging," or even "You have such a fun, carefree life!" I should take a moment to put into words the ~anxiety~ and ~stress~ that led up to this trip.  :oP  We had planned on leaving Sedric (3) and Gemma (5) at home for those 3 nights, and from the moment we heard we won the tickets in July (ND has a lottery), Marcus asked his parents to watch these 2 younger kids.

But in late September, just a few short weeks before our ND trip Marcus' mom and dad had to cancel because of a serious family emergency.  Oh no!  Who would watch Gemma and Sedric?  We went through our list of possibilities, wondering who was in the best situation to ask for such a big favor.  I honestly thought of cancelling the trip.  This big, wonderful trip that was to be such a great experience for my kids.  Celeste and I would have to stay at home. {:o(

But I decided to ask my friend Lisa.  She has 4 young kids--including a newborn!--and while she knew it would be hard, she said Of Course she would help!!!  Then I asked our family friends, whose oldest daughter Tess is one of our babysitters.  Mom Shirley said she would do whatever was in her power to make sure we could still take our trip.  Oh, everyone should have such good friends!!!  <hugs> to Lisa, Mrs. N., Shirley, and Tess!

So we patched together a hodgepodge of childcare that involved Lisa for one night, Tess for two, and another family friend for the final day.  So with some sweat and tears, we were on our way to South Bend....

We stayed with longtime family friends Bob and Linda, and their hospitality was so amazing!  We were definitely pampered on this visit, especially the kids.  My parents drove down from Northern Michigan as well, and they stayed at a hotel.

First night, playing games with Bob

 On Football Friday morning, we took a tour of campus.  Bob and Linda's granddaughter Kate came with us.

"Stonehenge" and the Golden Dome in the background

 Notre Dame is a somewhat small, closed campus (no cars except by special permission), although it is expanding every year.  These scenes are what I walked by every day when I was a student there in the mid-90s.

North Quad

Bunny saw one of her Camp Howard
counsellors!  How funny!

The Dining Hall was a big hit with the kids. 

Everyone liked the food and all the choices.
The kids thought the dining hall looked like
it belonged in Hogwarts.

Marcus' old dorm, Morrissey

Lighting candles at the Grotto

Walking through the Basilica.  So many
relics in their reliquary! 

"Touchdown Jesus" (the library)

"First-Down Moses" (complete with horns)
Do you know why Moses is often depicted
with horns?

Bunny standing in front of my dorm, Pasquerilla East

When we got home we were treated to a Polish FEAST by Bob and Linda!

Our wonderful hosts

Well, what I thought would be just one quick post will need to be two (or three?) since I haven't even gotten to the game day pictures yet.  :o)