Indiana Trip 2013 or..Road to Chelsea vs Inter Milan

How's it going? Missed a week on the blog because we took a family trip down to Indiana. I'll get back to that in a bit. So my 30th birthday was the 26th. Jill's family came up for the weekend. After I got home from work, Everyone was waiting for me with a banana creme pie. Mia said "Daddy, blow out your candles!" Awesome evening. Next day, my brother n law and I went to go see Despicable Me 2 (which was HILARIOUS). When we got back, there were a quite a few cars in the driveway. I figured "okay my family is here". Opened the door, and a TON of people were here. Friends and family came for mine and my sister's surprise birthday. Couldn't believe it. It was a great time. Jill & her friend Leanne made Minion cupcakes. They looked so rad.  I got some great gifts including the last Big Bang Theory season, some HIMYM seasons, an awesome Chelsea ball, and much more. A few days later, we packed the car up and drove down to Illinois (after work) First time EVER Mia was super happy driving down to Illinois after 10:30pm. Way cool.

Wednesday, we left Jill's family's house, and made the 4.5 hour drive to Greenwood Indiana. Mia did mostly well, but I'd like not to do any more long car rides for a while. Jill's got some friends down in Indiana, so it was great to be able to stay with them. Mia enjoyed playing their little boy Caleb. Thursday morning, we hit up the Indianapolis Zoo. Very cool zoo. Fun to walk around. Mia's favourite part was the butterfly exhibit. She walked around the little area with her arms straight out trying to get butterflies to land on her. It was really cute. So after the zoo, both kids passed out in the car, and Jill and her buddy dropped me off at Lucas Oil Stadium for the game. Man, what an exciting place to be. Indianapolis had a LOT of Chelsea fans roaming around the city. Everyone excited about the game. So I got there, picked up my ticket and my FREE Chelsea flag. They didn't allow anyone in thrill 6:30 so I had to wait outside for a while. Ended up talking to some guys for a while, killing time. Easy to make friends when everyone supports the same team :) So after I got inside, and grabbed some beer and dinner.

After eating dinner, I grabbed a program, a free sample of Guinness Black (with a souvenir cup) and headed to my seat. Met a family in front of my seat from Eau Claire (for real!) and the guys/girls who had seats next to me were from Chicago. They were super nice. The game was fantastic. Chelsea won 2-0. Both goals were amazing. Most of the people in my section were Blues fans. which was awesome. Took a lot of great pictures with the DSLR. Not an easy task, but I was happy with what I shot. So after the victory, we walked down to the area where we were supposed to be escorted to the pitch and meet the players (for an hour). Well, we
made it down, and waited. Security immediately told me and my new buddies that "NO PLAYERS ARE COMING OUT!" and they kicked us out after 30 minutes. I don't know who's more to blame here. The promoters on Living Social for false advertising that I'd get an hour on the pitch with photo opportunity (except it didn't "say" that they'd come out) just "a rare and exciting opportunity". Totally bummed about it. The seat was worth the money (thanks again Mom/Dad/Tom/Michelle/Jill) but it would have been amazing to have met the players like the ticket had said. Total BS. Oh well, not much I can do about it now. The game was amazing, met some great people and The Blues won. All in all, great evening.


Next day, we went to the fair. Jill's aunt drove in from Columbus Ohio to spend some time with Mia. She hasn't seen her since Mia was a newborn. I was quite happy that Mia really enjoyed their time together. The fair was fun. Very similar to the Wisco one (except no vendors) Mia liked the animals, but NOT the rides. She wanted to go on this slow 5mph train ride. As soon as she sat down, she FLIPPED OUT! No more rides till she's older. Way too traumatic.

She mostly survived the long drive back to Illinois. The next day we drove back to Wisconsin, and she slept the whole time :) Great little family trip. Awesome seeing some friends and family, and of course Chelsea play. Nothing too eventful going on this weekend. I probably should cut the grass since it's been a while. hope to play some soccer Sunday. We'll see. Thanks for reading!