Siena in the HOUSE!!

We were pleasantly surprised this weekend while watching the Siena College basketball game broadcasted live on ESPN, when we learned that one of Siena's "all-star" alum, Kenny Hasbrouck, was now playing for a semi-pro team! And, after doing a quick search online to see WHICH team he was now playing for, we were STUNNED to learn that he was now playing for our very own, local, Rio Grande Valley Vipers in McAllen, TX!!! What are the chances that Andy and I would end up living so far away from our home state of NY, all the way down here in South Texas - only to then be joined by a player from our college's basketball team!? We have missed attending the Siena games a ton - and in fact, no longer being able to attend the Siena games at home was one of our reservations about making the choice to move here. So, though it wasn't Siena's actual team now playing down here, Kenny alone was good enough!

Julia watching her first Siena game on TV with Daddy!

After looking up the Vipers' schedule we found out they were playing at home here on Saturday night, and normally, it would be a no brainer for us to attend on any regular day in the past, however, now we have an 8 week old in the mix. We had a decision to make! After contemplating for a bit, we decided to just give it a shot and the 3 of us go attend. We weren't worried about Julia being in good spirits there, more so that we were worried about it being way too much stimulation for a "newborn" and too loud, to boot. So, we crossed our fingers and Andy went online to purchase tickets (I just have to mention here that he happened to incorrectly select "best available" when purchasing instead of "best price available" and we ended up purchasing $48 tickets - 'Oh well,' we thought, 'it's worth it!'...) - we packed up our stuff, including the baby bjorn for Julia and a hat in hopes those two things combined would help protect her ears from the loudness, and we were off! We had a GREAT idea to dress Julia in her Siena onesie (which is a "6 month" size, by the way, a tad too big right now.. but that's OK) in hopes of having Kenny sign it. :) It turns out those $48 seats were PERFECT because they put us right on the floor! We joked later that, "Daddy" did that on purpose...... afterall, this was a big milestone, Julia's first basketball game, it was certainly necessary to get the best seats in the house. (wink, wink).

We arrived at the game about 20 minutes early, and Julia was in AWE. She was extremely entertaining to watch. She must have loved the bright lights and all of the people around because she just, happily, sat on my lap and took it all in with huge, bright eyes. As the team came out for their entrance, we were able to grab Kenny's attention by holding Julia up in the air; her sporting her Siena "jersey." And, this moment that I'm about to mention, unfortunately, we failed to capture by photograph! I couldn't be more disappointed about that, because it was very cute to see - and definitely a memory to hold on to - Andy holding Julia up as Kenny signed her onesie (while she was wearing it, mind you) - it was just really sweet to witness, but in our midst of juggling the diaper bag, baby bjorn, a blanket, our jackets, AND Julia, it was obvious that we have not been in practice long enough to actually know where every item we had with us was located at any given time.... for example, our camera. So, unfortunately, we didn't capture that bit on camera, but I suppose we will always have it in our minds!

And, that about sums up the entire basketball evening. Once the pre-game started,

including marching band that filled a small section of the arena, loud music, and cheering, it got quite loud - I quickly took Julia and bolted for the hallway of the arena. From there, I walked her around in the bjorn until she fell asleep, and we then attempted to go back in once the game started to see if it was still loud, and .... it was still loud, very loud. So, that didn't last. Andy stayed for a little while, and I headed to the "lounge area" with Julia for some quiet, but as soon as I arrived there, she woke up and started crying hysterically. So, imagine me, trying to get her out of the baby bjorn as she was crying at the top of her lungs (no doubt from it suddenly being quiet again and waking up, not knowing where in the world she was), and I finally got her out, and tried swaddling her up - but she wanted nothing to do with it. So I called Andy, he left the game (after catching about the first 5 minutes), we kissed goodbye to $96, and out we scurried to the car with nothing but leaving on our minds.

Poor thing - we felt like such horrible parents to have attempted to bring her to the game and then cause her to be so upset!! Once in the car we fed her, and she calmed right down, thank god! We're glad we gave it a shot, and certainly are excited about having her onesie signed, but I don't think Julia will be attending another arena event for quite some time now. Lesson learned!