Our Kids' First UGA Football Game!

We strategically planned our Thanksgiving trip to Georgia this year in the hopes that we could attend the UGA/Texas A&M game in Athens the Saturday before Thanksgiving. In order to get to the game, the girls had to miss a day of school, we had to pay a crazy amount of money for tickets, Brady missed a nap, we were in the cold rain all day long, you get the idea....but it was SO, SO WORTH IT!!!! All three of our kiddos love watching college football with their Dada, and the girls especially have really gotten into it the past couple of seasons. Shelby eagerly awaited the new rankings to come out each week, and we just really felt like we were at a "sweet spot" to take the kids to their first game between the hedges.

We pulled out of my parents' driveway at 9am that day, kickoff was at 3:30, and we pulled back into their driveway at 9pm that night. It was a long, wet day...but I wouldn't change a thing! We were dreading the 100% chance of rain forecasted, but in retrospect I think the rain made it more of an adventure that we'll never forget! It was such a sweet day showing our kids the city where we started our life together!

Totally random, but a little story I don't want to forget...Our kids have never lived in Georgia, so it's always exciting/super rare for us to see someone sporting a UGA shirt or a car with a UGA bumper sticker where we live. That's just not something you see everyday in Mississippi, Texas, or Vegas. So as we were driving into Athens, the kids kept screaming and getting so excited every time they saw something with the Georgia G on it. It was the sweetest thing!

The first two pictures below were taken as soon as we got out of the car in Athens...clearly our Texas kids don't see many fall colors at home! They had the best time walking through the leaves & picking out the boldest colors!

We stopped for lunch at a pizza spot downtown where we actually had our Welcome Dinner for our wedding weekend {although the name of the restaurant had changed, everything else was essentially the same!}. I wish we would have walked down to Porterhouse where we had our Rehearsal Dinner! The whole day we kept marveling at how much had changed and how much had stayed exactly the same. The passing of time is such a funny thing!

After lunch, we went to see the Dawg Walk when the football players enter the stadium. The band player with the blond ponytail in the picture below was the kindest soul. She was so sweet to the girls & let them stand on either side of her while the band played and the players came through.

{LOVE this picture of Shelby turned around excitedly telling Dada who she'd just seen} 

{Super blurry, but that's Hadley & Jake Fromm! The girls were so excited to get high fives from Kirby Smart, Jake Fromm, & D. Swift--the "big three" in their eyes! My favorite to see was Brian Herrien! The players came through so quickly and often in groups, so it was really easy to miss some of them! Plus they looked completely different in their dapper outfits as opposed to their uniforms & helmets! Herrien had just past by us when my Dad realized who it was & excitedly yelled out: "It's Herrien!!!" Herrien turned around & gave us the biggest smile I think I've ever seen! Such a fun memory!}

{First look at Sanford Stadium!} 

{This girl didn't care about the rain, she was all about the popcorn!!!} 

{This guy spent most of the game in my lap, but he stood up for a while and cheered, too! He was such a trooper the entire day!} 

{one of my fave pics from the day!!} 

{It rained pretty much non-stop for the first half of the game, but then the skies parted right about the time the sun began to go down...and we witnessed the prettiest sunset over the stadium!} 

{headed back to Grammy & Grampy's house after a LONG day!}

It was so fun having my dad at the game with us, too! Derek & I would often meet up with my parents at the football games in college or go to lunch or dinner before/after the game with them, so it was kind of a full circle moment to be back at Sanford Stadium with my dad & our kiddos.

It was just such a special day for us that I'll know we'll be talking about years & years from now. GO DAWGS!