Jacob’s First Georgia Game + the Weekend

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…

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.