K-State Home Opener

I love fall, and I love football...and I especially love K-State.  

So it should go without saying that one of my favorite 

days of the year is the K-State Home Opener!

The Friday night before was spent perfecting my K-State nails, 

complete with mascot stickers, of course.

(It even required a last minute trip to Wal-Mart for just the right shade of purple to match the stickers!)

I had made some phone calls earlier in the week to try and get a couple tickets for my brother and nephew to go to the game, but when they backed out Friday, my other brother and sister-in-law decided last minute (Saturday morning) that they wanted to go instead!   So after a trip to grab some tickets from my old roommate, we set off for Manhappiness.

A beautiful Saturday in the great state of Kansas

It was a quick hour and a half (quick because I drove about 90 the whole way) in to town.  I dropped Jason and Kelli off in Aggieville and went straight to meet up with Kelsey and the girls for lunch at Houlihans.

(Yes, Kelsey came back to Kansas for her wedding shower / bachelorette party to incorporate a K-State football game!  That's why I love her)

Showing off my nails at lunch.

All the girls at Houlihans: Me, Kels, Kenna, Stacey, Kari, Sarah, and Abby

After lunch, I went back to Aggieville.  I mean, I can't leave Manhattan without at least visiting Varneys.  

Aaaand of course I ended up buying - of all things - another scarf.  I need another scarf like I need a hole in my head.  But it was a super cute, soft K-State one!  I couldn't resist.

Off to the stadium.  We scored a pretty good parking spot south of the rec, and walked up to the main parking lot where Kelsey's dad had the tailgate set up.  

Did I mention it was HOT.  Like, really hot.  I had sweat running down my...everything.

Kelli and I

I couldn't wait to get in to the game -- and hopefully out of the sun.  

On my way in, I saw a guy trying to buy a ticket, and I knew Kelsey's dad had one for sale.  So I gave him my one single ticket, and ran back to get Bob's extra.  That way at least I was guaranteed to have somewhere to sit with someone I knew if nothing else worked out.

Thank goodness the seats Mike gave us were in the shade.  On the east side and just under the overhang...and up high enough/on the aisle to catch a little breeze.  Heaven.

The view from the seats.

I really didn't want to go sit on the other side with Kelsey's dad - mainly because I was pretty sure it was in the sun.  So after getting the boot from the ICAT section (just across from the seats), I decided to just squeeze in between / in front of Jason and Kelli.  

Tight quarters.

My brother is not a small guy, and the old man next to the seats was literally halfway in to ours.  Oh and it was hot.  So that didn't last too terribly long.  I decided I would try my luck at finding the girls in their upper-level seats.

Big mistake.  Talk about brutal.  Not only was there not a drop of breeze, but the sun was directly in your face.  I'm talking in your face beating down like an oven kind of hot.  I absolutely could not do it.  Miserable!

View from the upper level - where I'd never even been before!

To prove my point of just how miserable it was up there, the KSU staff had buckets of ice water and were handing out free rags to hang around your neck.  Huge fans were all over, too.  Like, I said: HOT.

All the girls eventually gave up, too, and weren't far behind me to find shelter in the shaded grass area. We didn't even care about the game at that point!

We were ready for half time and more tailgating.  I had some snacks and the girls finished off a bottle of vodka.  Yes, a bottle.  

No, I didn't have a drop of it, but it's a funny picture! ;)

Thank goodness the sun was going down by then, which not only made for cooler temperatures, but a nice backdrop for pictures, too!

The second half of the game was so much more enjoyable.  It was already a blowout so a lot of fans didn't come back in to the stadium.  I was able to sit with Jason and Kelli in their good seats.

Aahh I love this place.

Much to Jason and Kelli's disappointment, I made them stay the entire game.  I didn't care that K-State was winning by 40-some points.  There were fireworks after the game, and that was half the reason I came!

In anticipation for the sandwhich he was so excited about making after the game (I had stuff in a cooler in the back of my car), he got cups of ketchup and mustard...and carried them around for about the entire last quarter, haha!

The fire works were...so-so.  Not as good as I remembered in years past.  So of course right when I decided we could leave before they were over, we missed the finale, which sounded pretty amazing.  I just didn't get to see any of it! :(

We all snarfed down some sandwiches and hit the road back to KC.  

I had been debating staying the night in Manhattan and partying in Aggieville with the girls, but when I couldn't get ahold of one of them (all phones had died during the game), I decided to just go back home.  My poor foot was super sore and swollen from standing on it in the heat for way too long, so I wouldn't have been much good at the bars anyways.

It was a long two hours back home and we were all ready for some water and bed.  Kelli had been complaining about not feeling well on the way home, and actually went right inside and threw up!  We are officially too old for day drinking. 

Next time we'll just stick with water.  And shade.

Lake Tahoe - Part II

Saturday morning was a gorgeous day, so we got up and moving bright and early.  

I was more than ready for some time out on the water!

The best boat captain on Tahoe :)

Early morning water is almost always the best water of the day for wakeboarding.  Not the warmest, but the flattest.  So that's just what we did!

Ryan went first and got some serious air.  Carson was up next and landed a 360!

Sometimes Ryan's "serious air" turns in to some pretty fantastic crashes, which was highly entertaining to watch, haha!

Those two were some stiff competition to follow, but I went for it anyways.  I got up easy enough and made it outside the wake, so I'm calling it a success!  

This is what I do when I get scared:  Turn loose of the rope and just squat down, haha.

Shan went last and looked like a cool, calm pro as usual.

One of my favorite things to do is to hang out in the back of the boat and watch whoever is wakeboarding.  I'm always the "flag girl" on the boat and take my job very seriously. ;)

That clear blue (and freezing cold) Tahoe water just never gets old.  So beautiful!

(I'm not that strong of a swimmer so I had to hold on to Shannon in her life jacket for a breather.)

Wakeboarding really wears you out, so we chilled in the water and on the boat for awhile.  It was around lunch time by then, so we went to our favorite lunch spot on the west shore:  Chambers!

It's just so fun to tie up to a buoy there and climb up on shore to eat!

Chambers is famous for their "Chambers punch" drinks -- which are super strong.  I've had a sip of one before, and I think just that made me drunk.  Even with a warning, Carson slurped his down in record time, proclaiming how good it was - and that he was going to be fine.  

Yea, that took all of five minutes for him to take his shirt off and about pass out at the lunch table.  Live and learn, buddy. ;)

Side note:  the sheer number of condiments and water cups on that table is astounding, yes?

Some food did us all good.  After lunch, we crossed the lake and went to the east shore to chill out.  We didn't really have time to anchor it and hang out on a beach, so we just sat out in the water and soaked up the summer sun.  

Ryan eventually went wakeboarding again and just killed it.  He's so good!

We had to get off the water fairly early on Saturday...because we had to get to the TRUCKEE RODEO!

I saw it going on a couple of times when I lived there, and just never made it to it.  But we talked about this before hand and we all knew we had to go this year!

I brought my cowboy boots and the shortest shorts I own.  Sent this pic to my mom to get her going and asked if they were too short.  Her response was priceless:  "Not for you."  Ha! :) 

The sun was right in my eyes for the first half...but that lead to the perfect view of another gorgeous Tahoe sunset (which I failed to take a picture of).

The events went as follows:

Calf Roping

Barrel racing

Bull riding

I didn't enjoy mos of it, and won't elaborate much except to say I think next time I'll skip the rodeo and just sit outside with the animal rights protesters. :)

After the rodeo, we went to Shan and Ry's friends house in Truckee for a little outdoor barbeque.  The food was so good and it was just a beautiful night to sit outside and check out the stars.

I was beyond exhausted by the time we finally made it back to the house that night, but that's about par for the course when I'm in Tahoe.  Go go go until you collapse. :)

___________________________________________

Sunday was kind of up in the air as to what we were going to do.  Shannon wasn't feeling the greatest (possibly exhaustion from never resting when I'm around), so we just hung at the house that morning.  But Tahoe won out and we ended up back on the water by 11am.

I mean, how can you say no to views like this??

I've always wanted to swim out to those big rocks ^^  and jump off, but I wasn't really planning on doing it that day.  I was nice and warm on the boat...and I knew how cold that water was going to be. 

That changed once Carson slapped sunscreen on my shoulders after I told him I didn't want any on, and I knew I had to do it.  I dove right in off the boat to get the sunscreen off me.  And once I was in, well, why not just swim out there?  

I almost didn't make it (like I said, I'm not that good of a long distance swimmer), but it was so cool once I got up top!

(Ryan and Carson eventually followed suit and swam out, too)

Diving in!

Yea, that's me dying on the swim back to the boat...  ^^

Shannon had the boat people blow up the tube for us, so we had to give that a shot.  I didn't think it looked or sounded all that fun, but man, I don't even remember the last time I laughed so hard.  I mean, I laughed harder than the porcupine story from Friday night, and that was some serious gut-wrenching laughing.

Ryan and Carson take their tubing very serious and had some strategies to stay on.  So Shan and I just had a blast whipping the boat around trying to throw them off!

                   Ryan is just about off in the pic above ^^

I got talked in to going with them -- even though I was terrified of Shannon's boat driving at that point.  She promised to be nicer to me, but I saw what she just did to those boys!

Since she was driving the boat, she couldn't take any pictures while she was trying to throw us off, but this is me begging for her to stop and let me off after one session:

Even with the boys holding me in, it was hard (and a blast)

She went slow and straight enough for us at one point to try a pyramid:

Ryan took a break after that...and then I was really scared with just Carson and I.  Being sandwiched in between sounded much better. 

This picture (below) might not look that funny, but let me set it up for you:

My arms completely on fire - or maybe numb by that point, I don't remember, but they were shot.  Screaming profanities at Shannon for just whipping me around so fast I caught air.  Carson literally yelling at me for where to move my hands and shift my weight to "properly tube", while I just lay there hanging on for dear life (and screaming).  And the best of all?  Him holding me on by my swim suit bottoms as I about flew off on the turn.  HA!  

Begging to get off that *#%$ tube.  

My arms weren't the same for at least an hour after that.  Or my abs from laughing so hard. Who knew tubing could be so fun AND such a good workout!?  

We were spent after that and decided to anchor the boat and wade in to a semi-secluded beach for the rest of the afternoon.  We had a cooler with sandwiches, snacks, and cold drinks...and the best views around.  Can't complain!

It's easy to lose track of time in that spot, and that's just what we did.  We weren't even back on the boat yet when it was technically our time to get off the water back in Incline.  Thankfully Shannon's boat people are nice -- and flexible.

We cruised back to the boat dock, got in a nice little fight with the boat next to us, and got off the water.  (Quote of the day:  dude takes shirt off and yells, "You want to talk about it on shore!?" to Ryan who is much younger and bigger than him.  That's alcohol and/or stupidity talking right there.)

We had to make a quick pit-stop at my favorite store in Incline, Potlatch...where I just happened to find my favorite piece of Tahoe art for the second time.  I bought it for Shannon a year or two ago, and have looked for it every trip since.  Found it this time and now it's mine!  

On my wall in my room back in Kansas!

Not much time back at the house to clean up and pack up. We made it over Mt. Rose in record time and dropped Carson off at the airport with not a minute to spare.  After a quick gas and bathroom break, we took off for the drive back to Shannon's apartment in Oakland.

What a view we had on the way!

We got home late...but I actually slept in the back seat most of the way.  Which turned out to be a good decision because we stayed up talking waaaayyy too late that night.  Especially way too late for me considering I had to get up at 4:30 for my flight back home!

After a little mis-communication between Ryan and I at 5am -- and a trip to SFO instead of Oakland's airport!! -- I made it on my flight, back home, and back to work for the afternoon just on time.

I think I got just a little too much sun, yes?

My poor nose is a red as my scarf!

Oh Tahoe.  Thanks for another amazing weekend.  Until next year...

(Or who knows...maybe next month at this rate!)