GO GOPHERS GO!

Now that we have a basketball player in the house, we've been enjoying some live, college basketball.  I have a friend who works for a local radio station and he was kind enough to share with us his free tickets to two separate games. 

On Sunday, January 11th, we went and watched the U of M Gopher Women take on Maryland.  At the time the two teams were tied on top of the Big Ten.  Unfortunately the Terrapins beat our Gophers but only by one basket.  It was such a good game!  Mallory had been to Williams Arena once before but she was about 2.5 years old so she didn't remember much.  We had four tickets and since Christopher was tied up doing some routine maintenance on the Yukon, I asked two neighbors, Christy and Renee to come along.  We had a wonderful girls day out and even though the Gopher's lost, they played a heck of a game.  The Barn was rockin' and we all had a BLAST! 

The game would not have been complete without a visit from Goldy the Gopher.  Mallory had her eye on him from the minute we walked in and when he got close enough, we grabbed our chance for a quick picture and a big hug along with several high fives!  

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On Wednesday, January 28th, we were once again able to take advantage of some free tickets to the Gopher Women's basketball game against the Penn State Nittany Lions.  We got to The Barn early, parked our car and started the 1.5 block walk to Buffalo Wild Wings for some pre game fun.  As we rounded the corner, the Penn State bus was arriving.  Mallory and Lucy stood patiently and watch the Penn State players come off the bus.  All the girls were smiling at Mallory and Lucy, some waved and one came over to them and gave them high fives.  The girls were so excited!  Christopher and I were a bit taken aback as to how tall this girl was.  She towered over Christopher.  Even so, she had a great big smile on her face while she was interacting with the girls.  

This game was a little more subdued since it was on a weeknight, but the girls still had fun.  Cheryl Reeve, the head coach of the Minnesota Lynx sat behind us and chatted with us during the game.  Mallory almost caught a basketball they were throwing out and the girls were on the jumbo tron during a commercial break dancing their little hearts out.  They had so much fun and the Gophers pulled out a nice victory!   

All this excitement comes with a price though.  I don't think we were even off of University Avenue and these two were out.  In their defense, it was a school night and they were up at least one hour past their bedtime.  

 

We've been having a lot of fun learning more about basketball and watching more of it on TV.  Mallory has all kinds of questions about the rules of the game and how to better her own game.  We are so happy that she is happy and having fun playing basketball.  It means the world to us she has these opportunities!