Best Birthday Week Ever? Possibly!

As an infrequent contributor to this blog, I'll try to keep this short and sweet so as not to run any of Alison's regular readers off.

For minding my P's and Q's in 2009, I got a couple of great Christmas/Birthday presents. First, a trip to Steamboat with a few of my college buddies (regulars on the annual Horns' Port A trip). We had a blast and, though admonished repeatedly to take many pictures, I only stopped snowboarding (I mean falling on my @$$ with frustrating regularity) long enough to get a few.

Here's the crew (Tooley, Trey, Breto, and me) on our last day... the only day we could see more than 5 feet in front of us on top of the mountain. In exchange for the poor visibility, though, we had great powder those first two days, and I must have taken half of if off the mountain with me.

Mount Werner from the Steamboat Village. It was beautiful, and I can't wait to see Josh up there shredding the half-pipe on a snowboard!! (They actually have a kids class for that!)

Desperate to fill my picture quota, we snagged this one in front of a ski shop on our way out of town. Goofy pic, but that was a cool WWII-era Sno-Cat.

From Steamboat, it was on to my next destination, courtesy of Alison via a surprise birthday present. The Crafty One conspired with her brother to get me a ticket to the BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, which happened to coincide with my birthday. Seriously??!!! How awesome was that??!!!

To top it off, though, her brother and his college buddies had tickets to the Vince Young pre-game party on Wednesday night. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Just 15 minutes after we arrived, Vince and Selvin Young showed up and walked right past us on the way to their VIP suite, I'm sure.

I snapped this shot as Vince walked by. I had thought about wearing my blue velvet jacket but decided at the last minute to go more casual. How embarrassing would that have been?!

No more than "a couple" of drinks later, we asked a fellow Vince worshiper to capture the moment for us.

(Melissa (Alexia's friend), Carlos (Alexia's brother and brother to Luke's wife Stephanie), Alexia (sister to Carlos and Luke's wife), Luke, Phil, me) Get all that??!!

Ahh, the joyful bliss that was pre-game!!

Good husband that I am, I took this picture of Al's heartthrob, Major Applewhite, before the game. This one's for you, Honey!

The pre-game festivities were awesome: a 4 F-18 flyover by the US Navy, 5 skydivers with team and US flags dropping into the stadium, the National Anthem by Josh Groban and featuring Flea on the bass, but once the game started, I put the camera away. I wish I had a time-lapse video of the UT fans, though, to show the electric exuberance as the game got underway and we scored first; then the shock of seeing Colt head to the sideline and our true freshman back-up taking his place; the frantic texting as we tried to figure out what happened to Colt; the dismay at learning he would not return, while watching Greg Davis roll out some of his most conservative play-calling since the early years; the depression going into halftime; the resolve as we took the field for the third quarter; the intense noise every time Bama had the ball as we tried to rally our defense (and they responded); the chants of "Gilbert, Gilbert" every time our offense took the field; the baited anticipation as Gilbert lead us on our first touchdown-scoring drive; the bedlam after we scored our second and converted the extra two points; the disappointment of reality as it all slipped away thirty yards in front of our seats when Gilbert got sacked and fumbled; and the sea of orange that stayed in the stadium to sing "The Eyes" and "Texas Fight" with the team after it was over.

It was a great experience, though, and I wouldn't have traded that trip for anything. Big thanks to Al, her brother Phil, and Luke (who hooked us up with the VY tix and ESPN tailgate tix)!!!

So, best birthday week ever? Pretty darn close. Just wish Al and Josh had been there to share it all with.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging...