Scrimmage

The day finally came were the boyz could hit somebody. It was a cool morning and a perfect day for some football. It maybe hard to pick the boyz out in the photo because we wore our practice jersey's. The Raiders scrimmaged 2 different teams for varsity and JV. Dalton is one of the team managers and was very busy with rotating balls in and out. We did have a couple of players pull a hip flex er but the day was a success. Tabor had a great day, his footwork is miles ahead of last year and will play both sides of the line. It is very obvious that he has been in the weight room. The team showed a big improvement over last week in practice. No fear Elliott laid more than one kid flat on his back plus he caught a few passes. Those kids think because of Tanner's size that they are going to run over him but it was nice to see Tanner stick it to them every time. The excitement is starting to build only 4 days till we go live!

Father Son Flag Football

We had our traditional football potluck to kick off the season on Friday night at the Bode's. The boyz all had regular flag football flags but the fathers had some alterations to their flags. They were camo and about 3 inches long! We had such a great time and laugh. The fathers won 28-18. When the father's scored it was 7 points and when the boyz scored it was 6 points. We had last years seniors be the ref's and the mom's did all the cheering. Darin scored 1 touch down and stiff armed several boys & pancaked a couple of boyz too. After his touch down he needed a heart starter! We often heard how coach was cheating and I think Darin got even with a couple of kids from practice.

FOOTBALL

Finally we get to hit someone other than a teammate! Scrimmage in Madelia @ 9:30 am. I'll be there how about U?

Nicollet Raiders new football wear as modeled by the Elliott boyz. Only 8days till season opener at Cleveland. Boyz have a varsity scrimage in Madelia on Sat and Tanner's first JV game is only 6 days away at home vs. the Mustangs from Granada.

Signs of Fall

As August comes to an end and as you look around the yard it's definitely fall! Chickens are busy eating crickets, the leaves on the maple trees are changing and the sunflower heads are starting to fill with seeds. The garden is in full producing getting around a 5 gallon pail of tomatoes a day. The kitchen counters are full of canning jars even the pumpkins are turning orange. We are just 10 days away from kick off.

The Dome was Rockin'

Friday night we dressed up in our best purple & white to cheer for the home team. Naturally with over 62,000 other fans hoping to see something great from our newest player. You will notice a extra in a photo,that is Joe, Darin's office manager. Joe rode up with us to the dome for the game. Foodliner treated some Cargill employee's to a night at the game and all the eats & treats they wanted. They were all located a few rows behind us at the game. The plaza outside the dome was filled with all types of activities and people. The boyz each spun the Vikings Children Charity wheel where they won viking t-shirts (and why do my boyz always win the white ones?) hat & vikings tote. Our seats were amazing and we were on TV a few times. Friends were calling and texting us during the game when they would see us. We were sitting in a sea of purple except Tabor who was wearing his new WHITE#4 Farve jersey. And the boyz got a kick out of seeing themselves on ESPN & SPORTS CENTER about 10times. We have been to the dome a number of times for great events and it has been loud. The Bison -Gopher game was really loud. NOTHING compares to when Brett Farve came out! They had to of heard us in Green Bay. Okay we all know he didn't do marvelous things that night on the field but we just have to point out the long hair dreadlocks freak #13 who should be cut, totally dropped the ball. So for all you Farve boo-Hooters~ hey its nice to have someone to cheer about that makes you forget about work and all the other troubles from the week. It gives kids a positive role model who hasn't beaten his wive, shot anyone or himself and doesn't own a pack of fighting dogs. And "Thanks Farve" the extra tax dollars you are bringing into our state will educate the boyz and maintain our roads. Who knows this may make the VIKING wear popular again for Christmas gifts. We have a countdown for all of you ..........11days till the 1st football game for the RAIDERS! What do you think should we hire the guy with the purple face to paint it royal blue & white for our game?

Farve a VIKING!

WOW it really happened! Farve is wearing purple and the best part is we will be at Friday nights preseason game. Watch for the Elliott's sitting in the 3rd row section 100 the Vikings end zone. The boyz will get to see him play in the purple pride! Check back for our pic's from the dome

What a busy week

Wow a whole week and we didn't post a blog! Holy smokes has it been busy........ We have been working on the deck and in the garden and on the lake AND wrapped up training camp. Whew hardly a moment to sit down. This week is a little quieter being down to just the youngest in the house. Tabor is cutting timber down by Grandma & Grandpa, Tanner headed to Battle Lake with a friend and Dalton is enjoying all the extra attention. The last day of Vikings training camp was the best Mom went with Dalton at 7am to camp out to get tickets for Jared Allen's autograph. Well that didn't work but we got the Williams. And we were right next to the feild to get some pretty cool pictures. We are hoping that the Queen's cut the the girl with the dredlocks just cuz he messed with his hair during practice so much. But later that day Dad came Thur big time with VIP tickets for the afternoon session for his donations to the United Way. And Dalton won a football and Jared Allen autographed it along with Ray Edwards and Tyrel Johnson. We got to watch practice from a air conditioned tent while eating Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream, Man what a cool day! This weekend we hope to finish the deck and Mom has big plans of canning tomatoes. Then the best season starts on Monday......RAIDER FOOTBALL!!!!!! With Mom being the new AD she will get to see practice everyday. The whole Elliott Family on the football field...wow that will be a great blog spot.

Updates from Vikings Training Camp

Well we are 6 days into training camp and we thought we would give you a look at how is set up and run at MSU. The players are each given a bike which they are responsible to lock up and care for. Which the rookies always loose cuz the big starters move them. And the players think that they own the streets of Mankato when they are on their bikes! Bernard B should be run over he just holds his hand up and zigs & zags in the street. And if you have ever been to Mankato we have HILLS! Media every direction you turn. Campus is filled with people half which are there because they love the team and kids to get autographs but the other half is there to get merchandise signed that the resell either on eBay or at games. These people give the true fans a bad name. They push and chase players to get autographs, they come to practice with 5 of 6 shirts and have the players sign one then take the shirt off for the next player to sign. They hire kids to shout out players names to get autographs. They have a long tent with cooling fans and tables set up for autographs with 8 player tables and the fans are allowed 1 item per player to sign. So fans get in long lines in hopes of getting a autograph and they only do that for 30 minutes after each morning practice. Then there is the players entrance where the bikes are parked that has fence around that fans stand by to get autographs. This is where Tanner & Dalton are camped out. And they will get 7 or 8 players a day to sign. This is where you can tell a great player from a jerk. They will make small talk with the boys and comment about the jersey they may have on that day. Fans bring the players cookies and boo or shout out things that are not so nice. The boyz were there the day the QB1 got hurt and the crowd is so quiet because they are listening to T Jack moan like a school girl. Well Dalton yells out "Great we Suck AGAIN" The place roars with laughter and then they start to the BOOTY chant. ( anther proud parenting moment) Then its those moments that surprise you. On Monday Tanner was waiting for the team to come out to the bikes and Coach Childress comes out and walks up to Tanner and starts asking him about football and what position he plays and where her goes to school and questions about his coach. Signs Tanner's helmet wishes him well and then goes in to campus. Ton's of fans were screaming his name but he took the time just for Tanner. Cool. Rich Gannon has a conversation with Dalton that same day how we need to get a quarterback and if TJack doesn't cut the mustard this year he is done in the NFL. Training camp is something every fan should see at least once. We are very lucky to have it held in our back yard and you get to see how hard the players work at it. So come on down we have room for everyone!

Elliott's at the Dome

Well we have been to the Twins 6 times in the dome and every time we go they loose! So I guess we are done going to see them in the dome. Its hard to point out Dalton getting his baseball signed by Joe Nathan but he's the kid almost falling down to Joe in the photo. We got to see some great plays and had a wonderful time. We also ran into some old friends from Campbell-Tintah & some new ones from Nicollet. (small world we can't go anywhere with out running into someone) And the boyz were all excited to find out when we got home that we were on T.V.! What does the camera man from FSN due during commercials? eats banana's! So Sunday night we put away the Circle ME Bert sign till next year.