Meet The Spartans 2011

I've got a few things to share from this past week, especially our wonderful trip to Chicago! First though I want to share our evening with "Meet the Spartans" last Tuesday. The week flew by so fast that I didn't get the chance to tell you about it yet. You might remember last year we went downtown to "Meet the Spartans" and got all the football players and Coach Dantonio's autographs. Well, when I heard it was happening again on August 16th, I knew we had to be there. Once Evan found out about it, there was no way he was going to miss it. We planned ahead this time and got downtown E.L. a little early because it got busy fast last year. It started at 5pm and we got there about 4pm. We went into a couple of the bookstores and by the time we came out at 4:20pm it was crazy. I thought we had planned ahead, but I guess we shouldn't have gone into the bookstores. There are two huge tents set up, one for the offense and one for the defense. Then a smaller tent for Coach D. The lines for the offense and defense were already long at 4:20pm so I told the kids we should get in Coach D's line. I really really wanted Evan's picture with Coach D for his Spartan room that will be in the works this fall (it's his 7th birthday present). I knew if we weren't at the front of the line there wouldn't be any chance for a picture. So we were fifth in line, and we waited and waited. It ended up getting pretty hot on Tuesday, and then the team was late coming from practice so it didn't start until 5:30pm. We got Coach D's autograph and then Evan asked him for a picture. He was like, "Hurry up and sneak behind the table. We'll have to be quick." I don't think he was supposed to be doing pictures so the line would keep moving, but he graciously accepted not only once, but twice so Emme could get one too. Here's the picture I was determined to get!

It turned out pretty good I think! I can't wait to frame it for Ev's room. Here's Emme's picture with Coach Dantonio too. It came out nice as well. Coach even told Emme how much he liked her Hello Kitty sunglasses. :)

After we got Coach D's autograph and pics, we went and got in the defense line. It looked a little shorter than the offense, but not by much. As we were in line they kept announcing that autographs would end at 7pm and the seniors and Coach D would speak to the crowd. (Last year they did it at the beginning, but since they were late this year and so many people in line they just started with autographs.) As the line slowly moved, we finally spotted Sparty. Em had been asking where he was. There was a short line forming for Sparty pics so while Greg stayed in the one line, the kids and I went over to see Sparty. Em told me she wasn't afraid of Sparty anymore and she wanted her pic by herself. Sure enough she went up to him and I finally got her picture alone with Sparty. Here she is with the greatest college mascot!


As 7pm approached, we decided to get out of line because we knew we weren't going to make the cut-off. So unfortunately we didn't get any football players autographs this year, but at least we got the pics with Dantonio that I really wanted. Last year the team stayed until everyone was finished. I'm not sure why they didn't do that this year. I think the players would have if they could, but their "people" made them leave the tables right at 7pm and get back on the bus. A little bit of a bummer. It was a much larger turn out this year after coming of a Big Ten championship year so the lines moved slower. I wished they would have realized that the crowd would be bigger after having a great season, but it seemed to be a little disorganized this year. I thought they could have stayed to at least 7:30pm to make up for the half hour delay. Oh well! The seniors did speak at the end, and while they were doing that at least Coach D finished his line of autographs. He didn't turn anyone away! We're still looking forward to a great football season this year, and have high hopes for the Spartans. Here's wishing them good things when football season starts in two weeks! GO STATE!