DUDES and DAISIES: Spuddy Buddies

December 17, 2011… it was the best of times… it was the worst of times… it was the…

Yes… for the first time in nearly 2 decades, the good guys (a.k.a. the Utah State Aggies) were invited to a bowl game… right here in the great state of Idaho, no less. It is quite possible that we will have to wait another couple of decades to witness such an event… so there was no way we were going to miss it.

First things first… my smoking hot wife insists that I share with everyone my awesome planning abilities. Right about the start of December I was thinking to myself… “Self… I haven’t purchased tickets to any USU Aggie basketball games during the wonderful month of December. Nothing would show my love better for my smoking hot wife and my goofball children than to buy some tickets to watch Seattle U get demolished by the Aggies in the Spectrum on December 17th.” Fast forward (no joking) about 1 day…

5 Tickets for excellent seats on Row 19 of the Spectrum – about $100

5 tickets to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (we just found out that the Aggies got invited) – not so great seats, but, hey… it is their first bowl game in nearly 2 decades… so awesome, regardless – about $80

The realization that you now have tickets to 2 different USU Aggie sporting events for the same day in two different cities that are about 6 hours apart coupled with the realization that no one is going to purchase the basketball tickets from you because you are a moron and didn’t think through the fact that everyone who has ever been a USU football fan in their entire life will be making the trip to Boise rather than watching some “no-name” team get the crap kicked out of them in the Spectrum – PRICELESS (and crappy).

In the words of the great Homer Simpson, “I am so smart… S…M…R…T…, I mean S…M…A…R…T.”

Anyway… no use crying over wasted tickets. We began our journey at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. We hopped on I-eighty-something with our Aggie flag flying and joined the convoy of fans. As we arrived at Bronco Stadium we were greeted by the wonderful sights and sounds of the Potato Bowl.

Yes. That is in fact the trophy.

Okay… seriously, who wouldn’t want Spuddy Buddy as their bowl mascot?

And have you ever seen official bowl-game-headgear that exudes such an incredible coolness factor? In case you were wondering… yes, that is a potato on Alex’s head. Really, I’m not kidding.

Let’s not forget… there was an actual football game going on. Honestly, it was amazing to see the Aggies take the field on the “Smurf Turf”. Not to take a wild tangent here, nor to offend any die-hard Boise State Bronco fans… but the smurf turf looses the novelty after about 15 minutes of watching an actual game. By the end of the night I had a blue migraine. Seriously, that stuff plays with your eyes!

Aggie fans packed the stands. The atmosphere was incredible.

The game was incredible.

The Aggies dominated almost every part of the stat sheet…….

Except for the final freaking score. In what can only be described as a microcosm of their entire season… the Aggies led the entire game until the 37 second mark and lost by 1 point. Awesome.

I must remind myself that the point of being at the game wasn’t to win, but to enjoy the journey (or at least that is what you say when your team loses… if you team wins then you say, “Take that suckers!!!”). So… we enjoyed the journey.

Sam especially enjoyed our afternoon in freezing temperatures stacked on top of frozen concrete bleachers (not that I am complaining) for 4 1/2 hours.

While we watched the game… he spent most of his time in this pose…

He did come up for a few snuggles with his Mommy, though.

4 cups of hot chocolate, a couple dozen mini-donuts and 6 packages of hand warmers later we had a pretty dang good time and made some great memories.

Okay… who are we kidding, the real excitement didn’t begin until we made it back to the hotel. Tweedle Dum and his little sister only waste about 15 seconds before they had constructed the mother of all couch cushion forts…. and then the party began.