Thomas's Real Birthday

The Longhorn's game was almost a month before his birthday, so we celebrated again with presents, food and cake at Grammy and Papa's house.





The Longhorn theme continued with his presents. But the thing he was looking forward to most was this...an electric guitar! Thomas had one lesson the week before his birthday, and than we decided to get him a guitar for his birthday (which he has wanted since he was 4)

He LOVED the guitar and even played in the winter recital two months later with his buddy William...which you can check out here





That is a "10" you are looking at...an edible 10 that he ate before heading off to school on his 10th birthday. This is a tradition we started many years ago and a fun way to start a birthday...but I can't believe he is 10!

Hook Em!

So all Thomas wanted for his birthday was to go see a Longhorn football game. Steve and I thought that sounded like fun so we started looking for tickets. Turns out, Steve had a connection through Verizon with the Longhorn Network. Score!! So off we went to see Texas play Rice.

Here is our day, in pictures...


In the car on the way to Austin, getting excited...it was a quick drive. We made it in a little over 3 hours!



First stop, The University Co-op to load up on Texas gear. Ours was looking a little bit old and warn.

This Bevo in the back lot is a favorite!



Everywhere he looked was wall to wall Longhorn branded stuff. Thomas was in heaven. We got new shirts, hats, a lunch box, a couple of bracelets and even some Longhorn bottled water in the shape of the UT tower. You have to admit, that is pretty cool!




After a long and crowded time at the CO-Op we were running a little bit behind. We hit the road looking for parking. It took us a LONG time to find a spot and it was easily a mile away from the stadium. Luckily all over Austin you can find these "rickshaws" that took us from our car to the stadium.





We made it just in time to get our dinner and some drinks provided by The Longhorn Network...



...And some balloon "Bevo antlers" for Charles. Luckily for the people around us these popped before we even got in our seat.



We finally made it up to our seats; WAY up to our seats. It was nice and breezy at the top, and what a view we had.




Charles had a blast too. I was worried he might get tired of the game around half time, but there was so much to see (Rice fans painted in blue behind us) and where else can you scream your head off and not get in trouble??



Thomas has been a huge Longhorn fan for quite a few years, but it was fun to actually show him all the traditions at the school...and amazing how little he really knew. Seeing Bevo, and Big Bertha and the Silver Spurs and Texas Wranglers all in person was great. He didn't even know the tower lit up orange when we won!! And all the "alternative" lyrics he learned to the fight song from the crowd...well that is tradition too I guess.



Our beloved Bevo on the Big Screen!



The halftime show was great! Joshua, the budding trombone player, liked seeing the big band out there. But this was my favorite part. Rice started things off with this little dig toward A&M for leaving the Big 12 to go to the SEC. Pretty funny!



We left the game a few minutes early to try to beat the mad rush (there were 101,000+ in attendance that night) and we hiked back to our car. We were exhausted but had so much fun. Thomas REALLY bleeds burnt orange now!