Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals

A few month prior, Ben asked me which game I would like to go to this year. I told him I would have to look at my list of teams I've seen in the past and get back to him. I told him I had never seen the Cardinals play and he was like, that was the game I was looking at on Svend's list. Svend was given his parent's season tickets and can't go to all the games because he has little kids, he sells most of them to people he knows. 

Luckily, the Cardinal game was still available on Svend's list. Ben messaged him and made sure we got that game secured. We were now going to the Cardinal game. I sure hoped that it was better than the Buccaneer game I went to weeks prior with Mom. We should have won that game. I hate leaving the stadium angry. I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be like since it was November. It is pretty much a crapshoot at this point in the year. 

We got up around 8:30, ate a quick breakfast, made chicken Caesar wraps because going to football games aren't really that gluten free friendly to take with us and put it in the cooler. We made sure we had everything including warm clothes just in case it got cold or rained, our phone charger, hats, scarves, gloves and other things we thought of at the last minute and tucked those into our clear bag.

We jumped into Ben's Edge and left around 10:20 and got onto I-5. The traffic wasn't too terrible. We decided to call Trish and bother her while we were driving through Fife. We talked about our weekends thus far and then about how we thought the game was going to go. I was still on the fence on how our season was going so far. I thought we were pretty average overall and if I were to single out a few players, we had a couple who made big plays. I was just hoping to get to the playoffs this year after a couple of rough years behind our belts. In no way did I ever think we were a Super Bowl contender after getting a new coach recently and obtaining Darnold as our starting quarterback. I knew we would probably beat the Cardinals because they have constantly been terrible season after season.

Svend's tickets also came with a parking pass, as they did last year and yes, Ben didn't check to see if he accepted them, like he did last year when we were near the T-Mobile Park parking garage. We had to take a quick detour while he called Svend and downloaded them onto his phone. We got back in line for the garage, found a place and parked. We decided to eat our chicken Caesar wraps and some chips before going into the field house.

We walked the block and half to the field house, went through security and scanned our tickets. We were given some player posters. We ended up getting like five or six of them. We wandered around for a little bit and then saw that the Lombardi Trophy was out for display. We jumped in a very short line and got our picture with it. It was so cool to see it in person. 

We made our way to the stadium and found our seats. Svend and his family have a great view and comfortable chairs to sit in. Plus, we don't have people in front of us or behind us. Lots of room! We got situated and watched some of the pregame. The Star-Spangled Banner was performed and a celebrity rose the 12th Man flag.

I expected a big win from the Seahawks that afternoon. Let's gooooooo!

We started out with the ball in the first quarter and on our first drive of the game we managed to make it down the field, and it ended with a Darnold throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for six. Our kicker, Jason Meyers made the point after. We led the Cardinals early, 7-0. 

The Cardinals took their turn and their quarterback Jcoby Brissett got walloped by our defense and the closest player to it, scooped it up and ran it in for another 6. That followed by a Meyers extra point. We lead 14-0. On Arizona's next turn, they ran out of downs and had to punt the ball back to us. We finished off the quarter by a 9-yard rushing touchdown by George Holani and a point after touchdown by Meyers. We extended our lead 21-0.

Ben got up to grab a snack and some seltzers. I hung out in our seats surrounded by gameday ambiance. When he returned, he had a tub of popcorn, two seltzers and a Coke Zero.

The second quarter was just as one-sided as the previous quarter. The Cardinals quarterback had the ball punched out of his hands by our defense; it was caught in stride as it bounced off of the turf and ran in for another defensive touchdown. Meyers made his extra point. We had a commanding lead 28-0. The crowd was lit!

On the Cardinal's second possession of the second quarter, they once again, ran out of downs and had to punt the ball back to us. We chipped away at their defense and made our way down the field to set up a 6-yard rush touchdown by Zach Carbonnet. Meyers tacked on another made point after. We continued adding to our lead on Arizona 35-0. 

Arizona turn the ball over on downs and we get the ball back with not-so-great field position. Darnold makes a bad decision and fumbles the ball. The Cardinals recover it and score on a short field. We still lead, 35-7, but now, it isn't a shutout. We possess the ball one more time before half, but we were not able to get a touchdown. We make the field goal just as time ran out for the first half. We lead 38-7.

After halftime, the Cardinals received the ball to start the third quarter but quickly turn it over on downs. On our possession, Darnold threw an interception and Arizona gets great field position for a 15-yard pass to Trey McBride in the end zone. They elect to go for 2 instead of a field goal. Brissett finds Marvin Harrison Jr. open and converts. The score was now 38-15.

The Seahawks get the ball back but fumbles. Luckily, Arizona turns it over on downs with the help from our defense. The third quarter ends 38-15.

The fourth quarter opened with a field goal from Meyers, adding three more to our lead. The Cardinals get a much-needed touchdown from a 9-yard pass from Brissett to Harrison Jr. and a made point after touchdown by their kicker, Chad Ryland. It wouldn't be enough. With 5:31 left in the 4th, Meyers scores our last set of points on a field goal. The Cardinals have a short-lived possession and then punt. We run out the clock. Lights out. Seahawks stomp the Cardinals 44-22.

The crowd roared, hive fives were given and everyone grabbed their stuff and started funneling out of the stadium. It took a while for Ben and I to get out to the street to make our way back to the Edge, over by the baseball stadium. We had to wade through a lot of people. We left the parking garage around 5 and got onto I-5 south. 

We rolled into our driveway around 6ish. We grabbed a snack, got cleaned up, ran a load of laundry and got ready for the upcoming work week. That was a fun game!

Game notes: 

We had 372 to their 335 yards of total offense

JSN tops 1K yards through nine games, becoming the first NFL receiver to eclipse 1K this season. He also became the 8th player in franchise history to record back-to-back 1K seasons.

This was Rasheed Shaheed's debut as a Seahawk. He was traded by New Orleans earlier in the week.

68,723 in attendance

We possessed the ball 7 minutes longer than the Cardinals; they had 21 and we had 22 first downs and they had more penalty yards than we did.

Next Adventure: Val's Birthday Weekend

Halloween Party with Friends

We always try to get a head start on figuring out costumes for Halloween and each year we lose track of time and end up scrambling to get a costume lined up. This year was busy and we lost track of time...again. However, we had part of a costume we were going to do for our 90's themed party we had a few years ago. All we had to do was finish it.

I looked at the pieces we did have and what all we needed to finish them. We had the T-shirts with the logos on them and had some of the knee and elbow pads as well as the khaki shorts. We had to find another set and was going to check the Goodwill. I had the helmets and all they needed was spray painted gold, so I had Ben purchase some gold paint. I checked several Goodwill's in the area for knee and elbow pads and came up bit for relatively cheap. The only other thing we needed was to make pendants of life, which was pretty easy to do with a printer, some scissors and some sort of a string to drape them over our necks like we were wearing them. I also made us some name tags. We had to look official.

By the description of what I was describing, all you Millennials and GenX'ers might have guessed we were contestants on the game show, Legends of the Hidden Temple. Anyone younger than that might not know what that show was.

It took a couple days for me to assemble both costumes. Most of it was spray painting the helmets gold.

My friends and I decided to have our Halloween party the day after Halloween mostly because Celeste works on Saturdays and she and Isaac host Halloween at their house. It worked best for them to do it on Saturday night. She told us to come over around 6 with costumes, food and games. The food never disappoints nor do the games we play. It's always a good time.

Ben and I assembled the food we were supposed to bring, an extra table and the folding chairs. We headed into Tumwater and backed into the driveway so the boys can unload the table and folding chairs. They made quick work of it.

We went inside and helped finish up the dining room with Celeste. I went into the small bathroom and changed into my costume. Luckily, this one was easy to get into and didn't have a ton of parts.

We took group photos and individual/couple's pictures before we ate and played games. Ben and I went as contestants on Legends of the Hidden Temple, Megan was a llama, Nicole was a K-Pop character, Del was a space guy, Celeste was a witch, Isaac went as Jason, Lindsay was a Harry Potter character and Justin wore a cloak - I wasn't actually sure what he was. The only good spot in the house was the staircase, and it was a place we could all fit. We took several pictures and picked out the good ones.

We all grabbed some plates of food and made ourselves comfortable around the table. We played various games including our favorite one - Telestrations. That one seems to get out of hand when we all get together. We have some memorable drawings over the years that we still talk about. That night was no exception. We had some funny ones that made you almost pee your pants.

We always stay way too late when we have a game night. We helped Celeste and Isaac move the furniture back into its place, put away food and took the extra chairs and tables out to the Escape. I asked Megan to make sure she lets us know when she gets home since she is the only one who lives out in Rainier still...which is a longer drive than we all had currently.

We thanked Celeste and Isaac for hosting Halloween, and we looked forward to next year, which will be on actual Halloween! That meant, I have to start thinking about a costume here pretty soon since we always run out of time. Time flies.

Next Adventure: Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals

Halloween - Brian's First Time Trick or Treating

Mom wanted to take Brian trick or treating on Halloween. A couple weeks ago, she had a Friday off so she, Erika and Brian went costume shopping and then had lunch. Erika let Brian pick out his own costume. He was about a year and a half at this point, so she was curious to see what he would pick out. He immediately went to the Elmo costume. She put it back and went to a different part of the costume store just to see if he would pick it out again. He did. He wanted to be Elmo for Halloween. They went to the nearest McDonald's to get a Boo Bucket so Brian could put his candy in it.

We had tried the weekend before Halloween to take him to a trunk or treat in Rainier at the park, but it was cancelled because of the weather. We were bummed out but then we heard that either McKenna or Roy didn't cancel theirs and a tree fell down on top of a person and killed them. Instead, we went over to Megan's house to hang out with her kids. Brian was wearing his Elmo costume, and I wore my penguin one. We thanked her for having us over for a couple hours.

Doug had stopped by earlier in the day wearing an Oscar the Grouch costume on his way to work. He and Brian got a picture of them in their Sesame Street costumes together. It was adorable.

Mom made plans with Erika, Zac, me, Doug and Sonya to bring Brian over to Doug and Sonya's house so he could trick or treat in their neighborhood. We were hoping that it wasn't going to rain, but you can wish in one hand a crap in the other...

Of course, it rained and we were all bummed out, but Brian didn't seem to care! He wore that Elmo costume proudly and was ready to go trick or treating when Erika and Zach brought him over. We all met at Doug and Sonya's house around 5ish. I didn't wear a costume because it would have gotten soaked and I was mostly there to take pictures of Brian trick or treating. 

Doug and Sonya had decorated the outside of their house with signs, lights and other Halloweenie things. She also bought snacks and candy. Some of the kids who trick or treat at their house are not as well off as others, so she hands out things like small Pringles containers, granola bars, crackers, etc. We had a few groups of kids stop by before we got Brian ready to go outside.

We all went outside and started on the opposite side of the street Doug and Sonya's house was on. Everyone seemed to be kind knowing that this was Brian's first-time trick or treating. A lot of the people said he was cute. Some let him grab his own candy, others handed him candy for his Boo bucket and some of the houses Brian tried to walk into. We laughed and told him that those were not our houses.

Mom carried him part of the time and the rest of the time he waddled in his rain boots down the road. We did see a couple groups of kids out in the rain trick or treating. I imagine if it was a drier day we would have seen more kids running around the neighborhood. I remember trick or treating as a kid in the neighborhoods of Rainier. We used pillowcases and came home with tons of candy. Some of the candy would last until December or later. 

We crossed the street and made our way back towards Doug and Sonya's house. We were out for maybe an hour or so. The rain did not let up but luckily, we had umbrellas with us to keep us somewhat dry. I wore my rain jacket as well. 

We got back to the house, dried off some and went through Brian's candy. He was happy just putting the candy in and out of his Boo bucket and relocating items in their living room.

We all thanked Doug and Sonya for having us over and letting Brian trick or treat in their neighborhood. We all went home. I got home and made some dinner. We were all excited to see what Brian decides to be for Halloween the next year. We may even have a new baby at that point as well.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Next Adventure: Halloween Party with Friends