Sweet Suites

     Jessica and I became best friends in the fifth grade.  As we have grown into adults, our lives have taken different paths, but we have always remained close.  Her friendship has definitely been a blessing in my life and I still consider her one of my closest friends.  She has worked hard in her career and a couple years back, landed an awesome job working with community outreach for the Sounders and Seahawks (she even got to attend the Superbowl!)  Back in November, she called on a Friday afternoon and said she had four tickets to a suite for the next day's soccer game and wanted to know if we wanted to use them.  We were able to get my cousin (we miss Emily!) to come babysit the little boys, so Mike, Carson, Abby, and I could go.  

     Jess dropped off the tickets on her way home from work and also surprised us with Junior Alliance jerseys for the kids (and even one that fit me!), necklaces, and a parking pass for the parking garage connected to the stadium!

     The suite sat twelve and the four of us were the first to arrive.  After asking an employee where to go, we were directed to a hallway that had a bunch of doors that you could only get into by scanning your ticket.  We found our door, scanned our ticket and walked in.  The kids eyes about doubled in size upon entering the room.  There were Sounder colored candies, chocolate covered pretzels, and a whole spread of food for dinner.  Mike and I were as excited as the kids, we had never been in a suite before! The four of us oohed and ahhed over everything and enjoyed having the suite to ourselves for probably a good fifteen minutes before anyone else arrived.  Since we were the first to arrive we grabbed the front row (there were three rows with four seats each). It is open to the field so you are right there, but there it is also covered and there is heat blowing down on you.  We had our own bathroom and it's carpeted (Abby watched the whole game without shoes).  

      Seriously, it was the best way to watch a sporting event!  To quote Carson, "I feel like a king!"   The kids had a blast, even our "not so into watching sports" six year old.  It was a lot of fun for Mike and I to spend time with just the older two kids also.  We actually sat and watched the game; amazing!  

    

Carson and Abby in front of the field. 

Being with just the "big" kids was almost like being on a date!

Look at all those treats, I really wish I had captured the kid's faces when we walked in and were greeted with that sight right at their eye level.  

Scarfs up!

This boy was in heaven.  He loves watching any and every sport and would have been happy as could be in the nose bleed section with a blanket, so all this bonus stuff put his excitement level off the charts!

Enjoying our double date.

After that experience (which Carson described in his thank you note as "epic") we repeatedly told the kids that that isn't the usual way we watch a game and that was a special, one time thing.  So imagine their (and our) surprise when a few weeks back, Jess called again with tickets.  This time she had eight seats, so we took the little boys and my parents came along also.  We had a great time again and even though we were chasing E around the suite, it was certainly more comfortable than chasing up and down concrete stairs.

Mason told me just the other day about that "time we went to the soccer game that was really far away and we saw birds (?) and they had all that yummy candy.  That was really fun!"

Thank you Jessica for giving our family such a memorable and fun experience!  We really appreciate it and enjoyed every minute!