Family Ties

I have been trying to get the text of this post to appear above the picture but can't make it work. Can someone please tell me how to do this?

What a special treat we've had this weekend. Our first family member to come to Appleton on business was my cousin Stewart. He came to play football in Green Bay in his first professional regular season game. It was such fun to get together for dinner and hear about his life in our favorite city, Philadelphia. It was extra easy to get together because although the teams play in Green Bay, they stay in Appleton, about 3 miles from our house. After dinner, we snapped a quick picture outside the hotel. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was taller than he was!

I just have to say that I was very impressed with Stewart's ability to talk to teammates and fans one minute, and climb into our minivan and be chatty with our little girls the next. (I wonder if I will ever get used to seeing my cousin surrounded by autograph hounds. He is already used to it, having played college ball at Nebraska.)

I am so grateful to my Grammy who made sure that all of our cousins stayed close. Stewart and I talked about some of our family trips to the beach and some of our other family memories. He remembers spending a lot of time at our house with David, and I remember his huge dog, Moses, and their beautiful house that Ann decorated so well, despite having two boys who are "all boy" in the best sense. We have a great heritage and thanks to Grammy, we continue to be close with all our cousins. Now that we live far away from each other, that is even more important.

So today, Kelly and I went to the game to watch Stewart play. He told us that he was excited to share a field with Brett Favre, whom he admired as a kid, and it was so neat to see them out there together. We agreed that going to the game was great, but being able to watch Stewart made it even better. So if you enlarge the following picture, Stewart is number 55, somewhere in the middle of the image:

Now for some commentary on Green Bay Packers fans. This was a noon game, and even though I expected some of this, I was amazed at how much beer had already been consumed by 11:30 a.m. I was going to say alcohol, but really, most of it is beer. When I say we live in a beer culture, I really mean it. Because of the German and Polish ancestry in this area, they drink beer like it is water. Kelly works with a guy who drinks 35 beers at a regular business dinner. The guy behind us left 8 bottles after the game. It is truly amazing. I don't know if the beer makes Packer fans more nuts, or if they are just that way, but these people are incredible. They make so much noise! And really, the colors are green and gold, but everyone still wears them. Those cheesehead hats that they show on NFL commercials? Yep, they wear those, too. People here are proud of their cheese. I was a little scared to cheer for the Eagles, so we kept it pretty even keel. After seeing him in person, I think Brett Favre is one of the great quarterbacks. I'm not sure, however, that I'm ready to elevate him to the status of some of the fans here. The stadium has a sign that says, "In Favre We Trust." And that pretty much sums it up.

So I just had to take a picture of this hat. I don't know who crocheted it for him, but I just loved the Miller Light cans carefully flattened and crocheted right in. The funniest thing is that he is wearing an Eagles jersey, which didn't make any sense to me. You gotta be proud... Even though my camera doesn't always take the clearest pictures anymore (we know that we need a new one), it still caught this pretty well. Maybe after enough beers, it looks like it's spelled right.
This was an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience for us. Stew, thanks for giving us a reason to go to Lambeau Stadium and to root for the Eagles. I loved watching you play and I think I even caught you rocking out a few times before kickoffs. We'll be watching you all season and hoping for the best!