bucket list // court side nuggets game!

Hunter and I flew out to California a few weeks ago for Christmas vacation.  Hunt was able to stay in CA 5 days before having to come back to CO to work the week of Christmas, where I was able to extend my trip to be 12 days long.  When we were booking our travel, we looked up the Nuggets schedule and realized that the Nuggs played the night before we flew out!  We used to loooove going to Nuggets games together when we lived in Denver and sadly didn't make it to a game at all last year.  We decided pretty quickly that we would head down to Denver a night early to make the game before flying out the next day.  I know that my best friend Jaime her husband Ryan are also big Nuggets fans, so I shot her a text seeing if they were available that evening for a game (which they were) and just like that we had a plan!  

Jaime and I worked together for about 6 years, and the company that I used to work for and that she still works for buys season tickets for most of the sporting events, Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets etc. to give away to their biggest clients.  Jaime, being the incredibly kind friend that she is, pulled a few strings and landed 2 court side seats for the game in addition to 2 lower level seats.  We were bummed that the seats weren't together but joked about how each time out, quarter, basket made etc. we would run and switch seats so everyone got a fair chance at sitting in the court side seats.  James and Ryan let Hunter and I have the tickets the first part of the game and Hunter and I assumed that we would switch at half time.  Well!  These tricky and giving friends of ours surprised us and let us have the seats the entire game!  I couldn't even believe it.

For whatever reason, sitting court side at a basketball game has been on my bucket list for years and years now.  I like the Nuggets, but I don't live and breathe the basketball so it doesn't really make sense as to why I have wanted so badly to sit court side.  I've always thought that it would be such a fun experience being so close to the refs, players, scoreboard etc.  And it really was as much fun as I had dreamed up!  Hunter and I got the biggest kick out of what the refs scream to each other, themselves and the score keepers.  We would laugh at the opposing team's (Houston Rockets) coach pacing back and forth and got to marvel one of the Rocket's best players, Dwight Howard, express such kindness to the little 8 year old who was also sitting court side and wearing Howard's jersey.  Dwight would pause and high five/fist bump this little kid every single time he went in or out of the game.  He would sometimes even pause if the little boy wasn't paying attention to Howard and wait for him to turn to him and high five him!  It was so endearing and I got silly  emotional over how kind he was to this little fan of his.  Dwight even gave the kid his shoes after the game!

::hunter and i along with the view of jaime + ryan!::

It was an incredibly fun experience and we can't thank Jaime and Ryan enough for giving us the tickets.  It was a close game (though we lost) that went into overtime.  With less than a second in regular game time, the Nuggets hit a 3-pointer that tied us up and put us into overtime!  You can tell we were crazy excited at them making the basket as showed by this tv screen shot.  Ha!  The guy who was sitting in font of us had this picture text to him from a friend that saw us on his tv at home.

We all ended up going out for a beer after the game as we didn't get to see them but before the game and a little at halftime.  We ended up sitting with a few beers and talking until 1am.  Poor Jaime and Ryan had to work the next day, while Hunter and I had to fly to California with quite the exhausted hangover.

It was the most perfect way to spend a quick 12 hours in Denver and yet again reminded me of how thankful I am for James and her husband!