Vikings Training Camp

M and I went to Vikings training camp on Saturday, July 27th.  This time we took a very special guest...my nephew Keith.  He's pretty much always been into baseball but within the last year has gotten into football, which of course excites his auntie Dana.

We picked up Keith at 8 am and headed down to Mankato for training camp.  Camp just started the day before so practice would be limited with just a little over an hour in the morning and almost 3 hours in the afternoon.  It was actually kind of chilly out in the morning and the high wasn't even going to get to 73 degrees.  I'm not sure we've ever experienced weather like that at training camp as it's usually burning hot.

We waited in line as we arrived before camp opened and stopped at all the areas that we normally bypass, the kids area.

Morning practice was at Blakeslee Stadium and we watched some of the players walk their way to the field.

Keith enjoyed watching practice and kept talking about and wondering where Adrian Peterson is on the field, while I was seeing my first glimpse of Greg Jennings and Cordarelle Patterson.

After morning practice, we headed to the gym/locker area to see if Keith could snag a few autographs.  I bought him a football that had white panels on it for autographs. He was pretty successful.  

We went to lunch at Pizza Ranch, where we saw Toby Gerhart.  We said hi to him as we were walking in but didn't want to bother him for a picture or autograph for Keith.

We went to the mall and went shopping for Vikings stuff for Keith and then went to the store at camp.  I bought him a small Adrian Peterson plaque.  M found an Adrian mask.

Afternoon practice was at the other fields and it was way busier than the morning practice.  It was hard to find a seat so walked around a lot looking for the best vantage points.  We didn't see anything too impressive from anyone other than two 75+ yard field goals from Blair Walsh. 

We headed back over to the area where Keith got his autographs in the morning.  Again, he was successful.  He got Toby Gerhart's autograph and when Toby was signing his ball, Keith asked him, "How was Pizza Ranch?", which Toby laughed and said it was his first time there and it was alright. :)

We walked to the back of the building so see if Keith could get some more autographs.  Joe Webb was on Kare 11 news.  

Keith got several more autographs in the back and ended up with 13 autographs on his football and 1 card signed by Cordarrelle Patterson.  Autographs on his ball ranged from players that are trying to make the team like Adam Theilen, Bobby Felder and Desmond Bishop to guys already on the team like Jarius Wright, Charlie Johnson, Cordarrelle Patterson, Kyle Rudolph, Brandon Fusco and Toby Gerhart.  

We left Mankato around 6:30 pm and headed to Jordan, MN to the Yellow Barn.  We picked up some candy and dropped Keith off after 8 pm.  He had an incredible day and so did I.  It was so fun to live through the eyes of a kid for a day.