Friends + Free + Football = FUN

Friends + Free babysitting + Free football tickets = Fun weekend!

Hookem' Horns!

Last week we were offered tickets to the UT vs. OSU football game, in Austin, by one of the doctors Greg is working with. I was so excited being a sports fan and everything, but then the issue of what to do with our kids flashed in my head. No babysitters means no dates especially ones that would keep us away for about 7 hours. The few babysitters we could get probably wouldn't do so well for such a long period of time. We called Greg's mom to see if she might be driving into town to see her Mom for the weekend, but she wasn't. I had come to grips that we probably wouldn't be going to the game when I realized our kids only had half day of school on Friday. I could easily drive them half way home to meet my parents and be back home about the same time Greg got home from work. SWEET!! But then I looked at the calandar and it was my mom's weekend to work, it also was the opening day of deer season, and my dad would definitely be hunting. Bummer! I called my sister to see what her plans were for Saturday and she assured me she could watch my girls while my mom was at work. I called my parents and arranged the delivery/pickup time and got swung into preparation mode. I drove only about 2 hours and my parents drove 2 1/2 and they took off to East Texas with girls and my van.

Friday night we had dinner with Jenny & Doug(previous post). Saturday morning Greg went to sports clinic, I walked with Jenny, cleaned some, packed an overnight bag, and was ready to head out when Greg got home around noon. Greg dropped me off to get my eyebrows waxed, man I should have taken a before and after picture of that, I was begining to look like a 70 year old man. He got gas in the car, got us a diet coke and away we went to Austin.

Ang & Tara

We met up with our friends Tara & Aaron( they used to live in San Antonio, until last year) at Texas Land & Cattle. I usually never order steak when we go out but I was starving since I had eaten all day. We ate and chatted for two hours and then Greg & I decided to head downtown to beat most of the chaos before the game. We went in to the Unvirsity Co Op store to see about getting me a sweatshurt to wear to the game. It wasn't really cold, just damp cold. I should have taken a picture of this store. It was shoulder to shoulder people trying to get the latest and greatest in burnt orange(UT color). I looked around trying to decide hat to get but felt I couldn't justify spending 50 dollars on a swetahirt I wouldn't wear all of the time. I had already gotten a 20 dollar one at WalMart but admit the ones at the UT store were much cuter. Sad to say I left empty handed.

We had to take this picture in front of the State Capitol.

We walked, what seemed like 5 miles to get to the stadium and found our seats. They were on the top level but actually decent seats, and hey they were free! They honored some veterans before the game which was a little tear jerking. Then they had three sisters sing the National Anthem which was beautiful. While they were singing an Airforce Bomber Jet flew over right as the women were singing ..."land of the free" which brought tears to the eyes of two older men sitting next to us, and sent chills throughout my entire body. The jet flying over was planned, but not expecting it and then hearing and feeling it(it shook the stadium) was unbeleivable.

The game was very entertaining with lots of cheering, singing "the eyes of Texas", clapping, and yelling Texas - Fight all in unison. Even though we aren't UT alumni we joined in with all of the traditional chants, hookem' horns hand sign, yells, singing... It was so fun. There were 89,036 people at the game which was amazing! As they anounced how many people were in attendance Greg said, "that's more people that live in Silsbee(where I grew up), Groves(where he grew up), and several other small towns around each of those, all put together". Wow that is team SPIRIT!



We stayed over night in the Renassaince Hotel that was very nice. It was so nice to have getaway weekend with just the two of us. We slept in and then went back to the CoOP to buy something for the girls and had lunch. We then headed to meet my parents to get the girls back.

We had a so much fun just chatting in the car with just the two of us. We talked about jobs, places to live, things we want to do as a family. We never get to talk in the car with the girls so it was fun sharing our thoughts, hopes, and dreams with each other. The girls are always wanting something, singing so loudly that we can't talk, and most of the time when we are all together the girls want to just talk to Greg about their day, because he isn't always with us. The girls were excited to see us but all said right away "We don't want to go home!!" I guess they really missed us, Right? We made it home a little past their bedtime aso it was a little challenging to get them bathed, and ready for bed quickly.

Thanks to Grammy& Poppy for letting the girls spend the weekend with you. Thanks to Allison for babysitting and enetraining, and for Art, Jess, Caleb, Baileigh, Kallee, & Kindred, for spending time with the girls and playing with them. We love you all.