There is No Place like Nebraska...

On Saturday, we headed into Lincoln for game-day.  We met Brian's grandmas a Lazlo's (Mmmm) & had a great family lunch.  Andrew especially enjoyed his ice cream!

We then made our way over to campus for all the game-day festivities.  The band had just started rehearsal, so that seemed the perfect place to start (or at least perfect to me anyway, as that is how every home game day always started for me in college).  It seems as though no matter how much time has passed since those days for me, I still miss it tremendously!  How watching them brings back SO many memories!!  It was wonderful to share it with Andrew though and he had a good time clapping at the end of all of the songs!

Our main goal in getting to campus so early was trying to find tickets.  So, after the band was done, we wandered around the stadium in hopes of snagging some.  

While wandering about though, I didn't miss the opportunity to snap some shots of our little Husker fan!

That adorable little corn head was getting tired from all the walking around campus, so he went back home with Grandma & Grandpa, while we stayed at the game.  After much searching and running into tons of scalpers trying to sell tickets for WAY too much money (like $150+), Brian finally (like 20 minutes before kick-off) found someone willing to sell at face value!  Thank goodness!  So, after a mildly stressful afternoon & LOTS of walking, we made our way into the stadium to join the sea of red for a historic moment--the 300th Consecutive Home sell-out--a record that began in 1962! 

The crowd was super fired up & the stadium was packed!!  Homecoming & the 300th sell-out made for quite the event.  The only caveat to this was our face-value tickets were in the student section and well, we soon learned that we are sadly too old for such an experience.  In the student section, you stand for the entire game and for this game, there were so many people in the student section that people were packed like sardines--even on the stairs, the walkways, aisles, etc.  Plus, the sun comes beating right on you in this section.  So, this almost 30-year old pregnant lady was not feeling so great.  To top it off, some drunk student had to stop and puke on the stairs about 1 inch away from me!!!  Ugh!  Again, too old for that!!!!

Thankfully, by halftime, the sun was down, the crowd had cleared, and the rest of the game was a lot of fun--from all the neat video features, to the throw-back uniforms, to fans dressed in 60s garb, to the band's halftime show to all corners of the stadium--it was great!  

Aside from the defensive posting a shut-out, the highlight of the night was actually after the game.  The University put together two AWESOME video montages that virtually the entire stadium stayed for & for a little extra "bang", they were accompanied by fireworks.  

As one of the tribute videos so appropriately sang, "Our House is a very, very, very fine house" and I happen to whole-heartedly agree.  There is something special about Nebraska football & Nebraska fans.  I felt it from the moment I walked onto campus for the first time (ok, not the first time, since I was taken to the stadium at 6 weeks old, but the first time I remember) and from the game my senior year that "sold me" (although I didn't readily admit it) into going to school there.  There really is, "No place like Nebraska!"

Here are the links to the videos for any of you interested in watching them: 

http://www.huskers.com/newMediaPlayer/consolewmp.htm?id=650821&SPSID=&CLIP_ID=640657&DB_OEM_ID=100&CLIP_FILE_ID=650821&type=vod&SPID=&DB_MENU_ID=&oemid=100

http://www.huskers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&ATCLID=204802537&DB_OEM_ID=100