America's hottest homecoming

OSU Homecoming was a couple of weeks ago and there are reports that it is one of the largest and most well-attended homecomings across the nation, hence it being called America's Greatest Homecoming in folklore.  I'd agree simply by the sea of people that we waded through on Friday night when we went to walk-around to see the house decorations.

Brynn came to town with her folks to join in on the fun.

Having three kiddos to keep an eye on takes all four sets of adults because of the sheer mass numbers of humans just walking around checking everything out, visiting with friends, and enjoying the festivities.  Luckily we can still pack Denver on the chest or back of one of us.  He liked the view from his elevated position but clearly it was his rookie year...

Saturday brought the game and an early arrival on campus.

We meandered around for a bit...

Denver got great joy out of walking through the bike racks.

 

Being that it was nearly the end of October one would have predicted pleasant fall weather.

That one would be wrong.  It was 90 + degrees.

As you can see from the look on Annie's face, this was not one of the game day highlights.  A 90+ degree ballgame is expected at the first of September or even through September in Oklahoma, but come October, we're expecting closer to 80 degree weather for our games and outdoor activities.

To make matters worse we'd been teased with a few days of cooler temperatures so the heat that we probably wouldn't have even thought about earlier in the season became a beast to be reckoned with throughout the day.

It was all we could do to keep Denver out of the fountain.

He knows what's up - water equals cooling off and at that point in time that was everyone's goal.

 

We pushed through though and watched the spirit walk, picnic-ed on BBQ sandwiches and went to a tailgate.

It was then game time and even before we walked in the stadium and to our seats Philip and I knew we were sitting in a section that would consist of us broiling the whole game through with no relief from the sun at any point in time.

Annie and I took a bathroom break first and I wish I had a picture of the scene when we arrived to our seats.  I'll paint the picture in words here and hope that in years to come I can visualize it - Philip was standing and clapping for the arrival of the team and had positioned Denver behind him on the bleacher to keep him in his shadow of shade.  At the mere age of 1 he was able to manage all his toddling energy and was staying seated swaying side to side clapping and cheering because he knows how to play it cool - literally.

A few minutes later we took the above picture and it is telling.  Annie and I felt like we were on the surface of the sun so we managed to stay through about 4 plays until we went under the stadium for Dippin' Dots and the sweet relief of shade.  

Needless to say, we didn't make it through the whole game (and sadly neither did the Cowboys football skills).  Jenny and I ended up taking the kids home a little before the half.  The day was completed by eating pizza, the kids playing, all of us appreciating air conditioning while we were ironically watching Catching Fire.