Seahawk Fever

Football season is over.  For the rest of the world, the Super Bowl and all the celebrations feel like they ended weeks ago.  But here in Seattle, in 12th Man country, we are still going strong.

Most of us Seattlites have an acute case of Seahawk Fever.  Those non-fans in the area who have not been infected by the bug have certainly not been able to miss the crazy energy that has been going on here for the past few weeks/months.

Football season in our house is quite the big deal.  Ben is a huge sports fan, especially football.  He knows something, if not a lot, about every team and all of the big name (and lots of the not so big name) players.  September-January, every Monday night, Thursday night and all afternoon on Sunday, the big man of our house is watching football, or wants to be watching football.

Since moving here over 10 years ago, we've always cheered for the Seahawks.  They've had a lot of rough seasons in the past 10 years, but we've always rooted for them in hopes of a winning season, and ultimately a Super Bowl appearance and the BIG win!  The Seahawks made it to Super Bowl XL back in 2006, when Chloe was just a baby.  I remember being really excited about that, but I don't remember it being anything like what it was this year.

We were excited for another football season to start (and I made peace, again, with losing my husband for another season).  Even after the first 2 Seahawks wins this year, something felt different.  2 wins isn't much, but at least for me it felt like this was going to be a good year for the Hawks.  They quickly jumped out to a 4-0 winning streak- a first in franchise history. (Not to mention a 4-0 pre-season start as well).  Things really started to heat up around the city after that.

We were super excited to watch every Seahawk game on television.  Each additional win was so exciting.  The playoffs seemed destined to happen this year.

They ended the season with a 13-3 record.  They made it to the playoffs with flying colors and even secured home field advantage.  The Haws are known for their "12th Man" status- they are extremely hard to beat at home at "The Clink" due to having the loudest fans in the league.  "Loud and Proud" is the 12th Man fans' motto.  Things were surely loud and proud around here during playoff time.

The energy in the entire greater Seattle area was phenomenal.  I have never experienced anything like it.  Living in the city/area where your team actually plays is the coolest thing ever.  It was so fun. 

Our kids' school (and lots of surrounding schools I've heard) took a picture of the kids sanding in the shape of the number 12.  

I don't know if it was just Mitch's class or the whole kindergarten or what, but he came home with school work and art projects that were Seahawked themed for weeks.  I know his teacher is a big Seahawk fan.  It was all really cool and a lot of fun.  He'd bring home multiple Hawk things a week.

Quarterback Russell Wilson was used as the example of how to write your name "The kindergarten way"- capital first letter and lower case additional letters.

This Seahawk hat was so cute.

Mitch demonstrated how it fit on Jesse Bear.

Blue Friday was a BIG deal every Friday. 

Local radio stations changed their names to things like "94.1 Beast Mode" and fun things like that.

Song remakes were popping up all over the place to incorporate the Seahawks and their awesome season.  Our family favorite was "What Does the Hawk Say?

The Seahawk gear and decorations around here are ALL over the place.  It got to the point where I couldn't leave the house without seeing 12th Man flags hanging from houses everywhere.  People had their cars decorated with flags, banners, etc.  I even saw cars painted with the Seahawk colors and logo.  I could never go to a store and not see at least half a dozen or more people in Seahawk clothing.  Blue Friday wasn't the only day for Seahawk gear once they reached the playoffs.  The comradery was so much fun to be apart of.  Checking out at grocery stores, the clerk's and I would chat about the recent game (and recent win!)  You'd pass a fellow fan and fight back the urge to high five them but spring for a quick "Hi! Go Hawks!"  

We were lucky enough to get to watch the Seahawks win their second playoff game against the 49er's with Ben's sister Meredith's family on January 19th.  That was the winning game that sent them to the Super Bowl.  It was such a great game and the final decision came down to the last second play by Seahawk Cornerback Richard Sherman.  Seahwaks won 23-17.  There was lots of yelling and screaming going on at our house during that game.  Mitch and cousin William were so excited to wear their Seahawk gear for that game!  WE'RE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL! 

If things weren't crazy before then, it got bumped up to down right INSANE.  

On January 29th, Boeing unveiled a surprise for the 12th Man- a Seahawk designed 747-8 freighter plane.

In an article about the release of the plane, the author said, "If the Super Bowl were to come down to which team is more hip, it'd be Seattle in a landslide."  How awesome is that plane?

On January 30th, the plane took to the skies for Boeing Flight #12 and flew over the state of Washington in the flight pattern of 150-mile-tall number 12 numerals as a tribute to the team's fans.  (This was done during a test flight, as needed with new planes).

Since the super cool Dad that lives at our house works at Boeing, he got to bring home lots of posters of this super cool plane.

The kids loved them!  Chloe immediately hung hers over the door to her room.  The rest of the kids have been carrying them all over the house in Seahawk PRIDE!

This same night, we went to McDonald's to enjoy their weekend special of small fries for 12 cents, in honor of the 12th Man.  In keeping with the 12's, we got 12 of them.  The guy who rang us up at the drive-through window said we set the record for that day- we bought the most 12 cent fries in one transaction.  As we drove away he yelled "GO HAWKS!!"

Of all the kids, Mitchell has been the most into it.  With his class doing so much Seahawk stuff, he is really interested in learning about the players.  On the Friday before Super Bowl, he made a Seahawk Book before school.  He was so excited to take it to school and show his teacher, who is a big Hawks fan.  He said the teacher loved it so much that she took the book, along with Mitchell, down to show the principal.  The principal loved it and gave Mitch a pencil.

"Russell Wilson: He is the Quarterback"

"Marshawn Lynch: "Beast Mode."  He is a running back"

"The 12the Man

Seahawks Fans are the loudest and best fans in the leauge!  Go Hawks!"

Every drawing that Mitch has done at home or church the past month have all incorprated football and/or the Seahawks.  He is obsessed with his person drawings sporting the numbers "3" or "24" on their shirts.  Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson are household names in our home.  Mitch also loves to incorporate those two numbers into his every day life.  He was doing homework one day and had to write his numbers from 1-100.  He stopped at 24, on purpose, and took a break. 

 Marshawn Lynch is known as "Beast Mode" for his amazing running back skills on the field.  When given the ball, Lynch goes into Beast Mode and plows people over and can break through any tackle and can run long and hard.  He becomes a beast.  After he scores a touchdown, he'll go over to the sidelines and eat some Skittles- they are his "power pills."  Ever since Seahawk fans found this out, they started throwing Skittles onto the field after each of his touchdowns.  Skittles were extremely hard to find in the stores the week before the Super Bowl.  Everyone wanted to have their own supply of power pills to help cheer the Hawks on.

That same Friday, Mitch brought home some "power pills" that his teacher gave him.  He told us that she told the class that they couldn't say the word Bronco because "Broncos is a bad word in our classroom."  When he started sharing his Skittles with us, Chloe pointed out that the orange Skittles were Bronco colors.  Mitchell refused to eat the orange ones after that.

The big day- Super Bowl Sunday: February 2nd.

The 3 of us with official Seahawk gear

Mitch wanted a picture with Livy since she was wearing his old outfit.

Livy looks good in Seahawk Blue!

Our spread!

Of course we had our power pills!  BEAST MODE!

The game was awesome.  Seattle played an incredible game with lots of fun highlights and plays.  We had a blast watching it and eating way too much yummy food.  It was so fun to be in the area for the game because after each Seahawk score, booms and firecrackers would go off somewhere in the near vicinity.

The game was a complete blowout, which was a big downer for any Bronco fans, but it was a great win for the Hawks.  Yes, games are super fun when they are nail biters and determined right at the end, but any Hawk fan can say that it was an incredible game.  Seattle won with a score of 43-8.

As soon as the game was over, fireworks started going off all over the place.

We all ran out to the back deck to watch them.

As soon as we stepped outside, we could just hear people yelling and screaming and cheering all over in the distant dark abyss.  It was so, so cool.

We are not ones for letting our kids scream unnecessarily, but when your hometown wins the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, you let loose and break some rules.  The kids had a blast screaming as loudly as they could.

Leah had the best face and the best scream.  There's our little BEAST MODE!

Our next door neighbor came out on her back porch and started yelling with us.  She kept having the kids do it at the same time as her.  They all yelled and yelled and yelled.  I hate extra noise but this was awesome.

We came back in to rest our voices and watch the post game interviews, while eating our Skittles, of course.

Leah didn't have a Seahawks shirt (although she desperately wants one), so she put on Seahawk Blue instead.  A Utah State shirt is pretty close though, as the Hawks had two former Aggies on their team. 

Such a fun, fun night.

Livy went to bed that night, still dreaming about football.  TOUCHDOWN!

With the hometown winning the big game, the celebrating didn't end Sunday night.  It was announced right after the Super Bowl that Seattle would have a celebration parade on Wednesday, February 5th in downtown Seattle.  We thought briefly about going- this was, after all, a once in a lifetime opportunity and something that would be really fun to be apart of.  But logistics took over- 5 small kids, one being an infant, in freezing cold weather and standing for hours on end- didn't sound like something we would be able to handle.

We recorded it and watched it all together that evening from the warmth and comfort of our own home.

And yes, we watched it while eating our Power Pills!

Livy really wanted some too!

It was estimated that 700,000 people were there for the parade. (I even saw one report that said 1 million).  Traffic getting there was horrendous.  Buses and the trains were packed and had to turn people away.  The streets were packed with 10 people deep with no room to move at all.  People stood out there for 5 or more hours.  The temperature was in the 20's.  But it was sunny and anyone that was there would tell you it was pretty darn awesome.

It was estimated that thousands of kids missed school, and even more adults ditched work.  Lots of teachers were gone, and subs were hard to come by.  Everyone wanted to be at this parade.

Marshawn Lynch was the Parade MVP and threw Skittles to the fans.  Fans threw Skittles at him too.

All the players and some of their families, the coaches and staff and even the Sea Gals were all on cars and floats.

Wilson from Cast Away is apparently a Russell Wilson fan too. :)

Apparently, a 49er fan showed up.  The Dad in the background's face says it all!  

I'm not sure if Seahawk fever will go away even with football season being over.  Curing this ailment will be hard to do.  It is just too infectious and hard to get rid of after being Super Bowl Champs. 

But we'll get back to our regular, non-Seahawk homework assignments, our regular, non-Blue Friday Fridays, and our non-football weekends.  It's going to be hard, but we'll do it.

Our family had so much fun being apart of this historical event in our city.  We can't wait for football season next year to cheer on the reigning champs.  One more time- GO HAWKS!