A Peek at the Fiesta Bowl, Clausen-Style

Last weekend, four-fifths of our family road-tripped RV-style to catch Stanford's appearance in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, AZ. Why four-fifths? That was because the eldest Clausen child declared his complete lack of interest in football and his refusal to miss a day of school. His parents decided that while we could force him to sit through a football game, we weren't going to force him to miss school and deviate from his principles. (And principal.)

The roadtrip was loads of fun, and it afforded us the chance to connect and catch up with several special friends -- both Stanford alumni and Oklahoma State alumni, which made for a lively tailgate experience. Of course, I photographed the entire trip, and someday I'll get my arms around all of the photos, but I did manage to get a handle on those from game day and figured that I'd at least post those here while the memories are still fresh.

Get ready for a big ol' photo dump. :)

















I love how the Stanford-by-marriage guy in our group felt a need to make clear that he wasn't all in:









There were quite a few of these Cowboy hand signals going on...





... and that left us feeling a bit lacking in the spirit department. So we figured, if you can't beat 'em...



Even the baby bulldog got in on the tailgating. And I promise, no animals were endangered for the purpose of this photo, despite what it looks like in the following pictures. The cup of beer was a prop. Only a prop.

















It's a good thing that my husband doesn't get embarrassed easily (clearly):



The second half of tailgating seemed to fly by (hmmm... I wonder why...), and before we knew it it was time to go inside.







Gotta love the Stanford band. Their irreverent pre-game and halftime field shows are near and dear to my heart, and they still entertain. What other band can point out the state of Oklahoma's homesteading history and tie it to the game at hand by turning the word "LAND" into, well:



Of course, non-Stanford peeps probably enjoyed the more traditional on-field shows.



Or not.







And finally, perhaps my favorite shot of the set. His focused attention was one of the primary reasons we paid a big chunk of change to get to the game and get into our seats.



It's also the reason he sat, sobbing uncontrollably, for a good five minutes after the game concluded. He takes his teams' losses very, very hard. At the end of the trip, though, even he would tell you that it was a fantastic long weekend and worth every mile, penny, and tear.