Denver Broncos!

Last Saturday afternoon the Denver Broncos played the Baltimore Ravens at Mile High Stadium in Denver Colorado. Guess who decided last Friday night that they should go to that game? WE DID! 

We honestly up and left. The tabasco sauce was still on the counter, dishes still in the sink when we arrived home a few days later. We had kinda talked about going because the Broncos are the Miller family's team and they were playing in a playoff game on a Saturday, 8.5 hours away from us, which rarely happens. Plus, we don't have kids tying us down! We didn't get any takers on going with us and the weather turned nasty, so we put the thought away for it to be brought up again on Tim's drive home from work Friday night. In a matter of about 2 hours, we had bought our tickets, researched weather/road conditions, packed our bags, got someone to cover my work shift, booked a hotel, AND found travel buddies! Mark and Shannah to the rescue!!! We took off to meet them in Richfield that night, where we got a few hours of sleep and then hit the road to D town!

Made it to Richfield!
I was so pumped.

 Seriously, any travel at all really, gets me sooooo excited! Butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it! I love it I love it I love it! Spur of the moment trips are even BETTER!

5 am came quick, but we were all so excited we didn't mind. We drove a couple hours, stopped at Subway in Green River, and continued on our way. We played a variety of word/quote games and had fun chatting about all our opinions and memories and just random stuff. The three of them took turns driving, I personally hate driving another person's car in unfamiliar territory (we took Shannah's) it makes me sooooooo uncomfortable. The last thing we needed was me to wreck Shan's car her dad was already skeptical of her taking. One day I will get over that. So I guess I can only speak for myself but I didn't think the ride was too bad. We kept ourselves entertained and the landscape was definitely not monotonous.

The Rockies? I don't know my geography.

We pulled into Denver just in time! Thank goodness for GPS systems and modern technology eh? Trips like this really (or any matter of driving anywhere, really) wouldn't be possible for this directionally challenged girl if that kind of stuff did not exist. We parked the car with millions of other Bronco fans cars and bundled up in pretty much everything we own. Too bad 0 degrees doesn't care if you're wearing all the warm clothes you own.

It was so COOL walking to the stadium in this giant sea of orange and blue. You could definitely feel the excitement and the pride and the confidence. There is a sort of unifying effect.

"Sports Authority" field at Mile High

Holy crap! This place is huge!!!

Shan, Mark, Tim

Here they come!

Orange balloons!
The energy in the stadium is NUTS!!!!
Everyone is freaking out and having a jolly good time.
I'm sure the alcohol contributes to that slightly.

:)

The stampede waiting to get in.
Legit.

There is not a bad seat in this place.
SOoo much better than watching it on a TV screen.

There really is nothing like a real live NFL game! I can't get over the chills it gave me to be there among 75,000 fans watching so much talent on the field. I am SO glad we went and I really want to go to another one. Maybe in a warmer climate next time. You instantly become friends with all the people around you and high five them all and cheer whenever anything good happens. And again, there isn't a bad seat! We bought close to the cheapest ones available, but I still felt pretty darn close and had a perfect view of all the happenings. One thing I learned about myself though is that I really don't take well to bad sportsmanship. Now, I am competitive by nature and my heart beats fast at the thought of a competition or rivalry. I can handle a little trash talk and friendly jousting. But seriously some people drop all morals when it comes to sports! I was a little appalled at the things people will say and the people they allow themselves to become when another human being has on a black and white striped shirt or the other team wears the colors you correlate with hatred. I'm not naive, I know this stuff happens everyday. I'm sad. Sad that humans will treat other humans like crap just because they LIKE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN THEM. Because I think the thing I tell Ali and Haley (4 and 7 year old nieces) the most is that it is sooooooo so so so so so okay to be DIFFERENT! It's okay to like different things, to support different things, to dislike other things, we respect people for that! We are all DIFFERENT and we are SUPPOSED to be and should we hate on someone that likes and expresses different things than us, purely off the fact of that difference than actually knowing anything about them? Probably not. The idea that "it's okay" because it's sports is not okay with me. When is it ever okay to put down other living people? I will end this rant by saying I have a feeling if this was practiced outside the sports arena by one of these adult's children, it wouldn't be okay. That is a good standard to base your actions off of. I guess I just think its okay to have full passion for your sports team (or whatever it may be) and allow someone else to have that same liberty without being beaten upon. There is no need for it. It doesn't make it "fun" it makes it a negative atmosphere and it makes you look like a complete jerk. How bout we all just get along and enjoy our sports and keep our good judgment about us, eh?

The game was a super good one! I'd like to say that the Broncos won, but even after double overtime or "6 periods" or whatever you call it they lost to the Ravens! Booooo! However, I do feel like we got our money's worth! I would have been a little irritated if it was a blow out. They kept us guessing and hoping, scoring back and forth the entire game. It was frrrriiiiigid! Oh boy. I think the temperature ranged from a balmy 15 degrees to about 0 by the time we had been out there for 5ish hours. Even with all our blankets and gear we were all feeling quite ready to get into a hottub, or a warm car, or anything really that was indoors and heated by a nice big, hot heater. We all had trouble getting our frozen-solid feet to walk us back to the car, but Tim and Mark (must be something in the Miller blood?) were experiencing for real, painful sensations from it. Thought Shan and I were going to have to piggy back them for a half mile! Luckily they recovered okay, and we made our way to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. We were all so worn out from the game and waking up early that we went straight back to the hotel and fell right asleep! The next morning (Tim's half birthday!!! yay!) we stopped at IHOP for breakfast and then headed home! Quick trip! 

Funny sidenote: we went to IHOP for Tim's half birthday last year! Completely unplanned but kinda ironic. I wish we could have done something more but, we had miles to cover. AND! And And And! This year is Tim's lucky birthday because it is 20THIRTEEN and his birthday is on the 13th :)

Again we made it safely to Richfield and had Pizza Hut and McFlurries to tide us over for our parting journeys home. Mark and Shan are a blast to hang out with. We love them. So glad they trusted our crazy, last minute plan and came along!

Denver looks like such a sweet city! I wish we could have explored it more. Can't wait till next time!!