October 26 – “History times two”

After an all-too-brief night’s sleep, we hit the road again yesterday, this time to Houston.  This time the event was our first-ever football game tailgating experience.  Now don’t get too excited.  The team was Houston Baptist University, our alma mater.  They haven’t even had a football team for that long, just a year or two.  So it’s not as if they were threatening to knock off Mississippi or Alabama or even Baylor, for that matter.  But hey, when you’re an alum married to another alum, minor stuff like who your opponent is doesn’t really matter, right? 

Besides, the whole point of this particular excursion wasn’t the game, anyway.  It was the tailgating experience.  Why?  Because Luke was having his first birthday party right in the middle of all of the craziness.  Josh and Christi (also alums) set up a tent in the alumni tailgating area and decorated it with a birthday-mixed-with-football theme.  Coincidentally enough, the tent was quite near the kids’ bouncy house and face painting booth, so there was no lack of rambunctious activity opportunities.  Just what a collection of eight cousins needed for a perfect day.  That’s right, Kel and Christina (also alums) and all their kids were there.  Cailyn rode up with us.  Oh, and Christi’s brother (also an alum) and his wife (a Baylor alum) brought their little one as well.  Not to mention the presence of Christi’s Mom and Dad (also alums).  Quite the HBU family gathering. 

The tailgating was about what I expected.  Besides the bouncy house, grills everywhere, tents for shade, fraternity and sorority sponsored fun stuff, like tossing a football through a swinging tire (or just swinging on the tire), walking across a tightrope strung between two trees, watching a professional soccer match on a big screen TV set up in one of the tents (hey, gotta appeal to everyone’s interests, I guess), college officials schmoozing around meeting the alums (Aaaand, gotta keep those donations coming in, right?), college coozie give-aways, footballs and frisbees flying here and there, volleyballs bouncing, (was that badminton birdies I saw?), a full-blown university police presence (now, that’s a major change from when we were there.  Back then we had one guy who dozed all day in a golf cart), numerous variations on the pitching washers game, and lots and lots of orange and blue. 

The birthday party was great.  With some help from his older brothers Zak and Caleb, Luke blew out his candle and dove into his little cake (with some helpful modeling from Zak).  The chicken nuggets and fruit and chips and numerous candy choices on the side provided us all with a finely-balanced, nutritious meal.  I would say we were more than prepared for our foray into the football stadium. 

Now, a quick word about the game itself.  It was homecoming, so there were some of those types of activities.  The king and queen were crowned, dignitaries were recognized.  But in the end, the football team showed itself up to the task.  They were victorious, recording the very first home football win in school history.  Ah, to be a part of two history-making events in one day … a very first home win and a very first birthday for Luke.  Does it get any better than that?

Psalms 59:17 says, “O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.”

Father, thank you for our little man Luke.  Watch over him as he grows and learns and has many more birthdays.  Amen.