This past weekend my kids and I joined my parents for our annual weekend in South Bend to attend a Notre Dame football game.  We chose the game against University of Virginia.  Sadly, my sister and her kids were unable to make the trek this year, but we still had a good time.  I waited too long to buy our flights and by the time I got around to booking our air fare the ticket prices were astronomical.  Like $1,200 per person.  I decided to suck it up and drive.  To break it up, we left Greenville Thursday afternoon and drove to Cincinnati to stay with friends.  It was the perfect excuse to visit this sweet family.  The cherry on top was that Emery and Bodie got to play with Porter, their rescue Chinchilla.  Porter was saved from a pelt farm.  So sad!  He’s precious.  Below is a snap shot of Evie and Bodie with the little puffball. We left Cincy Friday morning and as we neared northern Indiana the sky became darker and darker.  I had checked the forecast before we left SC and knew that it called for rain, but I didn’t realize just how awful the weather would get.  We’re talking wind, rain, thunder, lightning, downed trees and power outages.  For HOURS.  These storms would simply not let up.  The pep rally Friday night was cancelled because of the apocalyptic conditions, so we ended up killing some time in the bookstore.  I can think of worse ways to spend a few hours.Thankfully, the Hammes bookstore had plenty of ponchos.  These babies came in handy.I know I’ve mentioned this before, but my absolute favorite thing to do on campus is to sit in the lobby of the Morris Inn and people watch while enjoying a glass of wine.  The Morris Inn is a beautiful hotel right in the heart of campus.  There’s a great bar, Rohr’s, and a very nice restaurant, Sorin’s.  We almost always spy some ND royalty in here on Friday evenings.  That’s Joe Theismann below!  My dad actually recognized Joe and they chatted for a bit.  My dad graduated the same year as Joe (class of ’71), but I’m pretty sure my dad wasn’t hanging out with football stars during his years at Notre Dame.  Just a hunch.  No offense, Dad.Game Day!  The Lilly section of the bookstore…so jealous!  We definitely didn’t have stuff like that when I was a student at ND.Since we weren’t sure if the weather was going to be conducive to tailgating prior to the game, I made plans to take the kids to meet Rudy!!!!  Yes, THAT Rudy!  He was super nice and signed our books.  I was nice enough to get one for Hayes and Kelsey, too.  We love the movie Rudy, so this was special. Thankfully, the rain let up in the afternoon and we stayed pretty dry tailgating and during the game.  However, once the rain moved out the temperature dropped big time.  Definitely felt like football weather during the second half!The Irish beat 18th ranked Virginia and I’m almost able to say that the weather “wasn’t that bad.”  It was, but a victory has a way of changing one’s perspective.  Go Irish!