Bozeman Bound!

Justin and I went to Bozeman, MT, this weekend to see the Bison play the Montana State Bobcats in the playoffs.  We went with a group of friends who included my cousin Katie!  I was very excited to go because I love going to the Mountains of Montana!  The only drawback was that there wasn't time to ski.  It seemed absurd to drive all the way to Western Montana and not ski! 

We drove with our friends Aaron and Andy in Andy's SUV. It is a family vehicle that has a DVD player in the back seat! While Justin took his turn driving Andy and I watched a movie like little kids! Haha. It was a great way to travel. I say that when I have kids I won't let them spend every trip staring at a tv screen and that they will instead learn to entertain themselves as I did, by reading, listening to music, and doing crossword puzzles. There is no denying, however, the power of a screen to entertain a kid for hours. We took our nephew Dylan to Minneapolis last year and the dvd player was like magic. Anyway...

 Here we are with our headphones on! 

Bozeman has enchanged me for years, since my family started going to ski trips when I was in elementary school.  After hours of driving across the quite empty Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana, Billings is where the mountains finally start and Bozeman is right in them.  It is the point that you leave the Interstate to go to my favorite resort, Big Sky!  Being in Bozeman meant being almost there!  I had  never spent more than a few hours there, so it was fun to be there for a whole weekend.  It is a pretty small town (well, compared to the small towns in my life it is a metropolis, but for a town with a state university and a Walmart it is small, with a population of about 28,000).  Right before we arrived quite a bit of snow had fallen, so the whole place looked like a Christmas village.  It was almost too beautiful!  The streets are lined with historical houses surrounded by pine trees and the main street is old-timey and pedestrian friendly.  The national chain businesses and restaurants are built to fit in with log cabin motifs.  The city Christmas decorations were very nice.  Oh, and to top it all off, everywhere you go smells like a fireplace burning pine logs.  It's a real winter wonderland.  On Saturday night there was a annual Christmas street fair so people were walking outside and pulling kids around in sleds!  Too perfect...

Enough gushing...we went to see a football game.  The stadium is outdoors so that was a change from what we are used to here!  I know many people are nostalgic about outdoor football but I'm glad I only have to watch it occasionally.  It was freezing and the metal bleachers became treacherously icy from people walking on them with wet shoes.  It would be really fun if it were earlier in the season.  

Here are some of the guys getting into their warm clothes!  I wore my ski outfit and thought it might look kind of prissy because it is matching and the pants are white.  But it was either the white ski outfit or my "Carhart" style coveralls, which I inherited from Justin (they were his in middle school) and which I only wear once a year, if even that often, when I go hunting for opening weekend.  They have rips in the crotch from occasions when I tried to climb over barbed wire fences.  So...I went with the ski outfit and I didn't stand out at all because there was quite an assortment of apparel at the game.   

There was a tailgating lot for NDSU fans which was fun.  It was a considerably smaller crowd than the crowd at a home game, but it was alot of fun.  Everyone shared with everyone else and it was like one big party.  Check out the lovely snow covered trees in the background!   

How do you like the new Bison hat I bought for this occasion?  I had to have something to identify my allegiance!

Brrrr...outdoor football!  Those bleachers can get so cold!  I remember it from high school football and baseball games!  The Montana fans were all prepared and many people had seat cushions and blankets to sit on (not that we did very much sitting!).  Fortunately, my cousin Katie and her mother-in-law Mary Beth rememberd to bring several blankets so I got to have their benefit! 

It was worth it to look at this during the whole game!

Here I am with Katie during the game.  As you can see, there were Montana fans behind us.  We were in a small group of about 15 NDSU fans and we were surrounded!  It was kind of challenging for me because, although I know the basics, I don't know the technicalities of football and also my attention can stray.  Often I end up cheering when everyone else does.  It works out fine except when everyone else is your opponent!  I had to pay better attention during this game! 

Another view of the stadium. 

We won!  It was apparent from the dismay of the fans and the newspaper reports the following day that this team did not expect to lose, let alone lose to NDSU.  Hahahaha we showed them!  The game was close for the first three quarters and NDSU was even behind for a short time but in the end we pulled ahead and won big!  The local newspaper the next day gave credit to the offensive line which is awesome because I think line players deserve some attention every once and a while.  Montana has a stud quarterback who is a freshman named Denarius McGhee.  The quarterbacks for Montana stood out because NDSU is kind of lacking in that area.  McGhee's family was staying at our hotel!  They were very nice.  If Denarius ends up in the NFL I will be his fan. 

The final score was 42-17!  I love this picture...I lifted it from facebook!  It had been awhile since Montana had lost a home game.  Later that evening NDSU beat SDSU in basketball!  It was a great weekend all around.  Bozeman is a really fun town with a great atmosphere, an enjoyable bar scene, and great scenery.  The people we were with were a blast and I don't remember when I've heard so much male giggling or laughed so much myself!  The only dissapointment was that NDSU had a chance to have their next playoff game in Fargo but the other games around the USA didn't play out the right way so the game will be in Eastern Washington.  Who knows what will happen...the football field looks like this! 

I think turf like that might throw me off but who knows...Montana thought the outdoor aspect would throw NDSU off and it didn't matter! 

Oh, while this was all going on my crazy parents were in Las Vegas running a 1/2 marathong...I know...YAWN...nothing new there!  Haha!  They said it went fine.  Here is where you can look up results if you want...

http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults_search?eId=27&eiId=33&seId=67

Good job, you crazies!