Tigers v Tigers 2017

Oh, Clemson football, we love you. Thomas and I debated whether to get season tickets this year. We used to get them every year since we graduated...that was until the fall that we had the boys, and no season tickets since then. We've missed being at every game. We typically got to go to one or two games a season if someone had extra tickets. We decided we were ready to jump back in to season tickets in 2017, but then we had to decide if we would get 2, 4 or 5. We landed on 4 season tickets. We knew that Ryan wouldn't get quite as much out of game that Stokes and William would...and he's easy to take care of...so we thought we'd either get a sitter or ask MaSha to keep him when we took the others to the game. In the case of night games, we would sell 2 tickets to pay for the babysitter for the boys. We went for it. Let me just say - if you've ever stopped buying season tickets and have lost your previous seats, do not jump back in the year after your team wins the National Championship. That's all.

We were at the beach for the first home football game of the season - see beach post here - but the 2nd game was a BIG one. The Auburn Tigers came to town...and brought my besties, Colby and Nator, with them!

In front of Death Valley

Last year, Thomas and I traveled to Auburn to go to the game on the Plains and we stayed with Colby and Scottie. This year, they came on up to the game here in Clemson. Scottie was going to come, but he's actually a Georgia fan and gets suckered into going to a lot of Auburn games since he lives there and all, and was "willing" to give up his ticket if Steph or someone else wanted it instead. And voila, we got our attendee situation decided.

The game was at night (obviously!) since we were both highly ranked - #2 and #14 at the time, I believe. The 4 of us - Colby, Nator, Thomas and I - made a full day out of it. We got a babysitter to come stay with the boys and we left our house right after lunch. We walked through campus, we visited tailgates, we ate, we drank, we had FUN. We had a home base at Carole's tailgate and had a blast. We split up for a while when Colby went to see some Auburn friends, Thomas went to meet up with the guys and Nator and I went to see some Tri Delts. The tailgating was spectacular and my favorite quote of the day was when we were walking in to the stadium before gametime and we were all feeling that football season/reunion-with-longtime-friends high and Nator yelled, "I love this! Give me ALL the Clemson!" It really was a great game day environment and a fantastic day.

Both of these schools are similar in terms of colors/team mascot/campus/architecture/culture/etc. Curious about the difference between Clemson and Auburn? This answers that:

In post-it notes, no less!

Mauldin pic!

Go Mavs! haha

Kimbo talking to us about Dabo and his replica
National Championship ring (see pics below)

Close-up of ring. Everything is symbolic.
It's massive! And a thing of beauty ;)

Colby with Natty ring

Nator with Natty ring

Thomas with Natty ring

Me with Natty ring

Colby got this traitor to paint an AU on her cheek!

Hmmm...

Besties!!!

My Framily!

Best Hubs

A beautiful sight! (Lot 2)

Another beautiful sight!

No filters were used on this! I promise! hee hee

Fun foursome

It didn't hurt that the CLEMSON Tigers won the game. Colby was a great sport and luckily I didn't hear any teasing/trolling after the game...to her or to any of the many, many Auburn fans that showed up. It was a great, defensively strong game.

This was also the first time we got to sit in our season ticket spots this season. Ummm...let's just say this: I was weak from loss of blood with all the "nosebleeds"!!!! *eye roll*

We got home very late at night after the traffic and drive back to Greenville and no one stayed up more than 20 minutes after our arrival home. Sleepy parents.

I loved being back in Clemson, I loved the sights and sounds of Clemson Game Day, and I especially loved being with so many people that are very important to me. We missed my cousins, Marla, Tim, Kacie and Jacob - Auburn fans. Maybe next time they will come up!!!

Bonus: I re-watched the game later and saw us on TV! All the way up in the upper deck! (Although this was right after a Clemson fumble and the cameraman was panning to all the Auburn fans that were celebrating - ouch.)