God, country, Notre Dame, and cold

Because I'm so successful and let's face it - a little bit famous in the PR world - I was invited to speak to a group of PR students at the University of Notre Dame. Okay, it just so happens that the professor of the class is one of Martin's best friends from college and he invited me to come out as an excuse to get Martin out for a football game.

Whatevs. We packed up our cold weather gear and headed to South Bend. I took care of business and impressed the eight students that showed up to the Thursday night class, and then we played the rest of the weekends with the Family Robinson and their four kids.

Traveling in style



 

Visiting Grandpa's favorite Chicago spot - Superdawg.



Enjoying her Superdawg, making Grandpa proud.



On Friday, we spent the day touring campus - seeing all of the famous sights from the Golden Dome to the Grotto to Touchdown Jesus. Yes, this was the official indoctrination of Peyton, and Martin did his best to brainwash our little three year o

ld about the benefits of going to ND. One small problem - Peyton was not impressed. She was cold. She was TERRIFED of the Leprechaun. And she hated the gold helmet.

You can almost hear echos of the fans chanting "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!"

"How many 'sights' on campus do we need to take our picture in front of?"

"I can deal with Santa. I tolerate the Easter Bunny. But this creepy dude had better back off. NOW."

On Saturday, Martin thought taking in a Notre Dame football game would for sure turn Peyton into a die-hard Domer. And she was really jazzed about her new Notre Dame jersey with the pink "1" on the front.

Posing pretty on game day.

Game face.

Touchdown!

The only problem - it was snowing with record low temperatures. And our little Arizona girl was freezing to death. We bundled her up best we could. But her 19 layers of clothes were no match for the windchills and snow. After about 15 minutes in the stadium she looked at me with sad eyes, "Mommy, I'm just so cold." We left shortly after.

All smiles INSIDE. She has no idea what is about to hit her.

She cried on the way home "I'M FREEZING!!" And although we thought she as being dramatic, we soon realized her toes and fingers were literally ice blocks. A warm bath and some hot chocolate later, she was playing happily by the fire.

The rest of the weekend saw Peyton playing in the snow with her new friends, a nice adult dinner out for us grown ups and lots of laughs with good friends who we don't get to see often enough.

The Four Horsemen

I'm not sure this trip will go down in history as Peyton's favorite, nor am I convinced that Martin succeeded in his mission to plant the Notre Dame seed in her brain. Oh well, better "luck" next time.