BCS Success!!

Gary and I were so very fortunate to travel to Glendale, Arizona for the BCS National Championship game to watch Auburn vs. Oregon for the coveted #1 ranking. This has always been such a dream for Auburn fans....unable to compete in 1993 when they were 11-0 due to probation and not chosen in 2004 to compete when they were 11-0 because they did not impress the computers enough....finally it was our chance in the spotlight. This trip started to take form after we won the SEC Championship in December. This is all we asked for as Christmas gifts from our family. Gary was very worried about tickets and it turns out he had a right to be worried. According to reports, this was the #1 selling event in StubHub history with ticket prices reaching unmatched amounts and climbing into the thousands for a single upper deck ticket. We were lucky to win an auction on ebay the week before Christmas for awesome lower level tickets in the Auburn section. We were on our way!! We flew out of Little Rock, AR on Southwest ($750 cheaper per ticket than Delta from Memphis....not even a chance Delta!!) direct to Phoenix. The kids stayed with mom and Dan and were packed and ready to go on Friday night.

We flew out early on Saturday morning and got settled into our hotel by the early afternoon. My suitemate from Freshman year in the dorm had invited us over to her home for a BBQ that night. She and her husband attended vet school at Auburn and hosted quite a few friends that had made it into town for the game.

Sunday was the pep rally. We met up with Gary's fraternity brother and friend Skip. He had a group that traveled together. We atteneded the pep rally with 20,000 - 30,000 of our closest friends. The organizers had no idea how rabid these Auburn fans were!! We had a great dinner on Sunday night and tried to sleep anxious about the big game on Monday.

Monday was all about the game....we were so anxious from the moment we woke up. We worked out at the hotel to try and calm our nerves and then ate some breakfast and then headed over toward the stadium. We arrived 5 hours early but were nowhere near the earliest arriving fans!! We once again met up with friends and bought souvenirs and programs and put them in our car. Thank goodness we had a good location parking pass!! We entered the game about 2 hours early and were thrilled with our seat location. Gary was pale at this point and so worried. The game was awesome. Auburn's defense stole the show and with a last second (literally) field goal, we beat the Oregon ducks. We were #1 and so excited. We stayed in the stadium for quite a while...took pics and bought very overpriced National Championship apparel. Could not find anywhere to eat after the game except Denny's. YUCK, but at least it was something. I guess only the places in Memphis stay open past midnight. Maybe that should be a clue about our obesity rankings??!!

Gary is now calmer than I have ever seen him....he says he can rest easy for another 8 months. We know we will not be very good next year as our Heisman trophy QB and lead defensive player plus all of our offensive line will be either gone because they are seniors or they have declared for the draft. At least we had a great season. We really enjoyed our trip and are so glad that we went and that so many of our family members helped make it happen! War Eagle!!

we made it!!!
the very crowded pep rally

one of our favorite signs

another fun sign

the great scoreboard

under armour was all over the place!!

this guy was hilarious...dressed as the heisman trophy and taking pics with fans. he had front row seats in the end zone. should have charged $$...he would have been rich!

fun picture with the cheerleaders

we are #1!!!

outside afterwards with the litle rolled tree!