Oregon 56 - Oregon State 14

For the past three years now, we have attended a Civil War tailgater to beat all tailgaters. Ida Mae (Beth’s mom) basically assumes control of the La Quinta Inn in Eugene for this event, and hosts a weekend long party with tons of activities, games and crafts for the kids (and a bring along babysitter) as well as food, drinks, and poker for the adults.

There was a small hiccup this year, however, when I called the Knutsen’s to see about caravanning to Eugene, and Chris said they had sick kids, and the current plan was that only one of them was going to come down for the event and not until the next day. I tried really hard not to be bummed out, but the fact is, this weekend is all about hanging out with those guys. Actually this year it was all about Duck braggin’ rights too, but that’s another story.

“You’re going to have to pick, Deb. Which one of us do you want?” Yikes!!! I had just finished telling him that although I thought he was a great guy, he had a fundamental character flaw in his allegiance to the Beavers. So when he asked me this really really tough question (do I pick my favorite bar tender? Or my dear friend?)

I was flummoxed. I told him I was afraid if I answered truthfully it would expose my own character flaw. A few minutes later I got a call from Beth, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT IS A TOUGH CHOICE???????!!!" Chris needed to shutup. They rallied – the whole crew showed up early Saturday morning, Beth ready to go to the game, Chris ready to make Tequila sunrises for everyone.

Charlie and I took our family's two tickets and went to the game. We went with Beth and her cousin Brad to the Moshovski center prior to the game and Charlie was able to mess around with some of the fun activities there before the game (first time he made the field goal attempt in the blowup tent thing - besting a drunk idiot who was razzing him about being a Beaver). He was such a trouper to hang out in the sea of Kelly green and Lemon yellow with a bright orange shirt, orange hair, and Beavers tattoos on his cheeks. He took a lot of ribbing but stood tough throughout the game (even when the Beavers got destroyed – I think they forgot to bring the defense down from Corvallis).

I love hanging out with that boy. By the end of third quarter, we decided the outcome was a forgone conclusion and the combination of the freezing cold and peasoup fog – convinced us to head back to the hotel. And after 10 years of hardwork on a native Eugene boy, work that started with siging him to sleep with the Oregon Duck fight song as an infant, I may have finally flipped him. I have been the sole Duck fan on Civil War day in this household for too long.

Most of the rest of the weekend was consumed with playing Texas Hold’em – which my children are surprisingly good at.

The rest of the pictures from our weekend can be found here. There aren't many because somehow over the weekend my camera stopped powering up. The day before we leave for two weeks of vacation, I could just cry!