GO GATORS!

I mentioned yesterday that we were going down to Gainsville today to experience the University of Florida Gators pre-game chaos! The kiddos were SO excited and anxious - even waking at 6:15 to try and convince me to get them fed, dressed, and in the minivan! While I did meet their need for food, I refused to get them dressed that early. We finally were all ready to go around 9:15.

 

 

The first stop on our 1 hour 45 minute trip to Gainsville was at our neighbor, Mr. John's house for a photo op in front of Albert. As luck would have it, he and his wife were heading out to run some errands before leaving for the game themselves, so they took a family picture for us!

 

 After this photo-op we were truly on our way! The kiddos were entertained by a Backyardigans DVD - Poor Wesley does not have headphones yet, so he did not hear it, but my baby did not complain one time! While they were quiet in the back, Robert and I were able to listen to a CD from Lighthouse Catholic Media - Whether you are Catholic or not, it is very powerful and I intend to write a post about this very soon. We were also able to witness MANY people being pulled over for speeding - so beware - if you are driving from Jacksonville to Gainsville, police are everywhere! The kiddos were so well behaved during the drive and before we knew it, it was time to park the decked out Gator Swagger Wagon, unload the kiddos, and get ready to enjoy the festivities!

 

We began to walk towards the college campus, but came across MANY distractions - the first was the Firetruck. They were letting you take pictures inside of it if you made a donation to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Robert and Hannah enjoyed this, but were quite confused by all of the screaming (and drunkeness) and just could not muster smiles!

 

  

As we left the firetruck, we had our first real encounter with some drunk gator fans - They were being quite silly and were somewhat excited to see the "little gator fans." These guys insisted on high 5's from all of us - the kiddos were quite confused and asked why they were SO loud and silly. Hopefully it will be a lesson well learned about not drinking in excess - you can never start too young, right?

Our next stop was a cut out of Albert. The gentleman who was manning the tent offered to take a picture of the 5 of us and I think it came out pretty well. He also had a black lab that the kiddos adored! Hannah, who is terrified of ALL dogs, even petted this dog!

We eventually made it onto campus and we were quite hungry - having never been to the U of F campus, and had no idea where food was. We found a Moe's, but that was a no go because Little Robert is SO picky. We finally found a food court of sorts and just bought some fast food from there and it happened to be directly in front of the book store where all of the fun goodies were! There, we splurged and bought a CUTE picture frame and a *little* stuffed animal for each kiddo to remember this special day. 

We left the dining hall and began to make our way back to the van. We first stopped at the stadium to take some pictures - 

 

 

 

After a long day of adventures we headed home. During the drive, Robert and I sat in the from as we listened to the kiddos talk about the day. We listened to Wesley chant "Oo Ators!" We listened as Hannah laughed about how she touched a REAL alligator. We listened to Robert tell us that he wants to play football there.We listened and smiled and knew that all of our efforts to make today spectacular worked!

It was such a great day and I am so grateful that we were able to do this with them! Thank you to my sweet husband for the fabulous idea that I was completely against as in the end, I am SO glad that we went!