Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!?!?

If you're my friend on Facebook, you've probably been seeing my status updates about going to Denver for Monday Night Football. (If you're not my friend on Facebook-why the heck aren't ya?)

My family are huge NFL fans, even though we all support different teams. A few months ago, we found out that some friends of my parents were chartering a bus to Denver to watch the Steelers v. Broncos game this week. They are all HUGE Steelers fans (as is my dad)! My parents, Sean and Diana, and Jake and I decided to join the fun and bought our tickets for the Steelers Express.

Jake is a lifelong Broncos fan and it's always been a dream of his to see them play live. It worked out perfectly being so close to Christmas and we just decided to make this our Christmas to each other since we never get to go anywhere without Sayer and it will be so much harder with another baby!

I am a Patriots fan but of course I supported the Broncos. Sean and my mom are both Cowboys fans but also wore blue and orange for the game, and Diana doesn't really care so she just followed Sean's lead :)

I have so many pics that this post will probably be huge, but the experience was so awesome I can't really cut it down!

Jake on the bus ride there. He was so excited!!!


Diana somewhere in Wyoming


Most of the 53 people on the bus stayed in the same hotel. Most of them were also Steelers fans. We kind of bombarded the lobby all at once and it took us an hour to get all checked in! These are just the check-inners...the rest of us were behind me watching the Sunday Night Football game.


I told them this reminded me of the two brothers who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War :)


Our first view of Invesco Field

My cousin Jake lives in Denver and luckily didn't have to work Monday. He wanted to hang out with us so he took us all to the 16th Street Mall, which is just a long road with lots of shops and restaurants for us to play in.


Walking to the mall...we got a lot of honks and shouts because of our Steelers fans!


The rest of us walking to the Mall...the Steelers fans here are the Reeds (Jeff, Ginger, Chandler, and Keegan). They're good family friends who are a blast to hang out with! We were excited they decided to come with us to the Mall. I about ate it walking backwards to take this pic.


It was beautiful weather in Denver! We were really lucky.


Jake's my train man. He was disappointed we didn't get time to go into Union Station.


Here's the girls waiting on lunch at Hard Rock: Mom, Chandler, Ginger, and Diana. You can see Jeff in his Jeff Reed jersey (the kicker for the Steelers is also named Jeff Reed...how cool is that?)


Just waiting to order


Jakey and Mom


If you look really hard you can see the Hard Rock Denver sign behind us


All 11 of us...we had the nicest server who suggested standing on a chair to get this great pic! Talk about earning a tip!


Mom and Dad

After walking back to the hotel (I was pretty much over the walking thing by now, and we still had to walk to the game!) it was game time! We walked (AGAIN...so so much walking and my body wasn't liking it) to Invesco Field and stopped to snap a few pics.

Now, you have to know the story behind our attire. Diana and I were talking about how expensive NFL gear is and how we needed to find something cheap to wear. Jake and I went to Fanz that night and found these shirts on clearance for six bucks! Luckily they had all our sizes so I called Diana and snagged them up-so yes, we all matched, but we also had the cheapest outfits at the game. As Diana said, "It's six bucks!"




My belly EXPLODED in Denver...it's almost as big as Jake's now, ha ha :)


So sickeningly cute


Mom and Dad...we think they need marriage counseling to sort out their football differences :)


Our first view of the field...we were on the 37th row so we could see it really well!


Sean and Diana




"Big Ben" warming up (black hat)


ESPN dudes doing the pre-show...we think the guy on the right is Steve Young. Sorry this is such poor quality...I was taking it through binoculars! Very inventive and even more difficult...


We were on the Steelers side. It got a little ugly :)


I got a little better with the binoculars. This is the opposite end of the field!


The Bronco tunnel. It was awesome and they put it up in about two minutes!


It was beautiful weather in Denver. We didn't even need coats for the game!

It was a quick trip but so much fun. The bus ride home was a little miserable (we had some bus problems and got stuck in Rawlins, WY for awhile while they fixed it) and we didn't get home until 10:00. But all in all, we had a blast and hope we can do it again!