Well, this was
a weekend for the books, that’s for sure.
A weekend for the books.
Friday evening
was low-key. I took Jacob for a haircut
on the way home from school, we grabbed a pizza, and brought it home. I poured a glass of wine, we enjoyed dinner,
and then we spent the rest of the evening outside taking in the crisp fall air,
blue skies, and low humidity. Dare I say
that I was even… chilly? It was the
perfect way to end the work week, and the perfect way to start the weekend.
Saturday
morning we got up early and B took Olivia to my mother-in-law’s house so the
rest of us could head up to Athens for the Georgia vs. Tennessee game. Olivia seemed perfectly fine being left
behind… she was content in her “pwetty Georgia dwess” AKA her new cheerleading
uniform and having her Nana all to herself.
She even did a few cheers for us before they left. ;o)
We have four
season tickets, so we had also invited B’s dad to come along, so he met us at
our house, and we headed out around 9 AM.
We listened to our UGA playlist on the drive there… a mix of UGA Redcoat
Band songs, ESPN College GameDay songs, and miscellaneous songs that they play
in the stadium each Saturday before the games – Baba O’Riley by The Who, In the
Air Tonight by Phil Collins, Saturday by Elton John, and many others. We were all pumped by the time we arrived in Athens!
We parked in
our favorite spot downtown, and headed straight to Transmetropolitan for some
lunch. There was a 20 minute wait (not
bad considering it was game day) and then we were seated. Jacob was a little hangry by the time we got
in our seats, but fortunately I’m always prepared for anything, so we gave him
a granola bar and some fruit snacks while we waited for our food, and B and I
sipped on some beers.
We all scarfed
down our food… Jacob even ate most of his slice of pizza which is crazy because
they’re so big. And who can blame
him? Their pizza is also fabulous.
After we left
the restaurant, we set out to do a little shopping and show Jacob some of the
sights. We went to my very favorite
place for UGA gear, The Clubhouse, right in the heart of downtown, where I
picked up yet another Georgia dress for Olivia, some more game day face
tattoos, and a new workout tank for myself.
Next up, Jacob
got to see the arch. It was built in the
mid-1800’s and has been one of UGA’s most beloved symbols since. Tradition says that students should NEVER
walk under the arch until they have received their diplomas, and visiting the
arch after graduation is somewhat of a rite of passage. Since Jacob isn’t a current student (hopefully
in 13 years he will be!), we walked right under it and continued our walk
through the campus.
UGA was
established in 1785, and it is actually the United States’ first
state-chartered university as well as the college that set the tone for the
public college system as it is today. In
other words, the campus is old and steeped in tradition… some of the buildings
are over 200 years old! And the campus is
very picturesque… beautiful architecture, big old oak trees... just
beautiful. We even overheard some
Tennessee fans discussing how much better our campus is than theirs! Jacob enjoyed taking it all in.
We took him to
see a couple of the buildings where Brian took classes when he attended, and we
took Jacob’s picture in front of one of the business buildings… ya know, in
case he does decide to graduate there with a business degree one day like his
Daddy did. :o)
When we arrived
at the stadium, Jacob was in awe of how giant it is. It holds almost 93,000 people, so yes, it is massive! I can’t believe how big it must have looked
to him since he had never seen anything like it before!
We had to get a
couple of shots of us in front of the stadium for his first time there, and
then we headed in. Jacob was taking in
all the sights, high-fiving everyone, and he loved the escalators! Lol.
Brian and I were cracking up over how awesome he thought they were and
then we realized that he probably hasn’t ever seen one before. Haha.
Our season
tickets are located in the middle deck, so we went exploring a bit when we got
there as it was still a bit early and we didn’t want to sit in the sun any longer
than we had to. We found a misting
station and Jacob thought it was just hilarious. He cracked up every time the fan turned his
way and blew mist all over him.
About 30
minutes before game time we went to our seats, watched the boys warm up, and we
watched all of the pregame festivities – the band performs, they always sing
the school anthem, the National anthem, and then the battle hymn along with a special
video of past plays that the team has made.
We heard Saturday by Elton John and Baba O’Riley by The Who, and the
players came bursting through the banner and running on the field. Jacob was completely enamored.
About halfway
through the first quarter he asked for his ice cream since we had promised him
some, so I took him down for a quick break.
We reapplied sunscreen, misted ourselves at the misting station,
refilled our waters, and got his ice cream.
I forgot to mention that the temp was 81 and it was totally sunny, not a
cloud in the sky, so it was really hot since we had no shade in the stadium. Noooo boots at the game just yet!
We went back to
our seats after our short break, and then at halftime I took him down one more
time to potty and refill our waters and cool off. For the second half we didn’t even have to
leave, and he seemed to really enjoy the game after that.
I snapped these
pictures at the start of the fourth quarter.
It’s a tradition for the band to play the Superman theme song while we
all hold up four fingers, and Jacob LOVED that.
About halfway through the fourth quarter he did ask when the game was
going to be over but he wasn’t whiny about it.
And that’s when
it got exciting.
We had been up
the entire game, but Tennessee came back and took the lead with just a couple
of minutes left in the game. We thought
that all hope was lost, but our boys were on fire, and they made it halfway
down the field with just seconds to spare.
That’s when our QB hurled the ball downfield – one last play, a Hail Mary
50 yard pass, and he connected for a touchdown!! We had taken the lead with only 10 seconds
left in the game!!!! The entire stadium
went wild, dancing, cheering, and celebrating.
And I looked over and Brian and Jacob, and Jacob’s face was absolutely
priceless.
And then
Tennessee managed to pull off a miracle – another Hail Mary – and they scored a
touchdown in the literal last second of the game. We.
Were. Heartbroken. But oh so proud of our offense for stepping
it up when it counted most.
What a game. It’s one that Georgia fans will remember for
many years to come.
We walked the
long walk back to the car, and Jacob was out like a light within minutes of
getting settled in his car seat. We had
to wake him to eat dinner at Chick-Fil-A about an hour later (once we had
gotten out of most of the traffic), and then we loaded him back up where he
fell fast asleep again.
All was well on
the drive home, but about an hour away from our house, we ran into some road
construction where we had to come to a stop.
That woke him up, he didn’t know where he was, he realized he was
constrained to a car seat and he freaked out.
I felt so bad for him. He was
pretty much out of it, so there wasn’t much I could do, but fortunately he fell
back asleep and we got through the traffic jam pretty quickly. He awoke a couple more times crying which
made me feel helpless, so I was relieved to pull in our garage. It was around 11:30 PM, so it had been a long
day for him… possibly the longest ever, so we were incredibly proud of him for
doing as well as he did.
My MIL had
taken Olivia back to our house to put her down for the night in her own bed, so
she was already home and fast asleep. B
and I were exhausted, so we went straight to bed… no staying up and watching
more football!
Sunday morning
looked much like Olivia’s choice of attire:
A hot
mess.
It was a million
loads of laundry, unpacking the car from the game, preparing for the workweek
ahead, doing dishes, tidying up, etc.
We left the
house around lunch time and took the kids to Panera and the playground, and
then it was home for more laundry, cleaning, and blogging until it was time to
head to my parents’ house for Sunday dinner where we also celebrated my littlest brother's birthday!
It was a
positively exhausting (and way too short) weekend, but it was also one of the
best. Spending all of that time with Jacob
and showing him around one of our favorite places was priceless. He even told me at the game that he wants to
play football for Georgia when he’s older.
I asked him if he wanted to throw the ball, catch the ball, or tackle
people and he responded with an emphatic, “TACKLE PEOPLE!”
Well son, as
Daddy said, you either need to start eating your Wheaties every morning, or you
may just need different genetics altogether, because none of us are big and
tough enough to tackle people. Lol.
Needless to
say, I think we made a lasting impression this weekend with regard to Georgia
football.
And the
tradition continues…
