Penn State Football Camp

Last year, my daughter attended the Penn State gymnastics camp.  We dropped her off, signed her in and went to enjoy a day on campus.

My oldest son was signed up for the football day camp, which was the next day.  He was over the moon excited about this, especially to practice on Penn State fields and see Bill O'Brien.  He's not a huge PSU fan, but he is a HUGE football fan.  He couldn't wait to get on the field and work on QB drills.

We woke up early the day after we dropped my daughter and drove back into PSU.  We pulled in to the parking lot of where the registration was supposed to take place, but there was no one there.  We were confused, and as time ticked on, we were worried.  We walked inside to inquire about the camp, and see if we were in the right place.  It was then we were punched in the face with a terrible news.

The camp was yesterday.  Que the vomit.

My son burst into tears.  Uncontrollable, inconsolable tears.  He was shattered.  My husband and I were shattered.  It was painstakingly shattering.

It has taken me a year to even blog about this, because it was one of those awful parent moments that you'll never forget.  We had the wrong day marked from the get-go, and after we marked the calendar we never checked again.

The worst part of the whole day was that we were THERE, on campus, checking my daughter in for her camp.  All the while my son's football camp was going on right around the corner.

Horrifying.

The good news is that this year, we made it.  We went on the right day and my son was finally able to see Bill O'Brien.  He worked with PSU almuni and coaches.  He ate in the screening room and we walked to the Creamery after his camp was over.

It was a beautiful day, and a huge success.  And only after this success can I even admit to the colossal scheduling mistake I made the year before.

It was great to see my son run his up/downs, and throw the ball again.  My other munchkins ran on the field and enjoyed lunch downtown.  We bought shirts and my Hubby reminisced.  It was a glorious day.

One of the hightlights?  Bill O'Brien, a total class act, signing my seven year old's cast.

Pretty awesome.

I'm happy I can finally talk about, and almost laugh about, showing up to a football camp my son looked forward to for months on the day AFTER the camp.  After all, I learned a lot about myself that day.  The first being I need to slow the heck down and check the calendar.  The second being I never, ever want to do that again.  The third being I'm human.

Cheers to that, and happy trails!