Sweet Seattle Victory . . . .

In New Jersey, from Raine's vantage point at the Super Bowl. 

In downtown Seattle, after the Super Bowl, from one of Annie's vantage points. 

We had a fun day yesterday, a day punctuated with the sweet taste of celebratory ice cream desserts AND of a long-awaited victory----at our house, especially for my husband and son.

Willie remembered the family packing up and going on Sundays to drop off garbage at the dump or the dumpsters (we liked to spread our trash around back in those days) and hurrying back to watch the Seahawks play.  

That was at the old house when he was a young 'un, growing up on Great Northern Road. 

For our two Love men, yesterday's Seattle Super Bowl victory was a long time in coming. 

Like so many fans around the Northwest, they've loved and supported their Seahawks through good times and bad.  They've never gotten over the heart-breaking Super Bowl loss in Super Bowl back in 2006. 

Yesterday took care of that disappointment. 

The Love father-son sports fanatics are generally men of few words while watching their sporting events, but when they talk, folks generally listen.  

While others are spouting off with cheers or commentary, Bill and Willie sit there, quietly analyzing or maybe even occasionally silently seething at some dumb move. 

They're generally hard to read on the emotion scale, but both of them read voraciously, and they know their sports trivia inside and out.

It was a good day of remembrance for Bill and Willie and a good day to remember the long road that led to yesterday's big win over Denver.   

Willie was thinking back on the last time Seattle celebrated a notable world championship. 

"I was 2," he said. That's when the Super Sonics (no longer in Seattle) beat the Washington Bullets in the 1979 NBA finals. 

When he brought that up during the day's recap in our kitchen, I pointed out that the year he was born, there was a Triple Crown winner.  

Of course, Willie didn't remember that one, so he simply looked at me with a blank stare.

"SEATTLE Slew," I proudly announced, realizing the geographical significance. 

Of course, that led to my telling Debbie that my two kids were born the years of the last Triple Crown winners.  

Annie was born in 1978, a few months after Affirmed took the Triple Crown. 

"We haven't had one since," I noted. 

It was a great day at the Love house as Foster wore his Seahawks jersey and starred in a few crazy videos.   

After all, as noted yesterday, his former owner and some of Annie's other colleagues were at the Super Bowl, having the time of their lives.  

Meanwhile, Annie was over in a Seattle suburb, geocaching with friends, later watching the game and then hopping in a car to join the downtown celebration. 

She reports that folks were well-behaved and excited during her travels through the streets of Seattle last night. 

In my mind, victories like Seattle's are sweet and meaningful----meaningful,  because winners have clawed their way toward a seemingly elusive ultimate goal. 

It's that very first time when a long-awaited goal finally becomes reality that special, well-deserved pride,  great joy and remembrance of this time for years to come is forever etched in the hearts and souls of all who earned the victory and all their supporters/mentors who helped them get there.  

We've all seen similar "first times" in sports and other areas of our lives, and whenever they happen, they are, indeed, sweet.  

On this Monday morning after the Super Bowl, I'm thrilled for the Love father-son sports-loving team, for the phenomenal Seahawks and for all who've followed them for 38 years. 

Twas a great victory.