The following weekend after the Florida State game, Clemson played The Citadel. Everyone knew this would be a "family friendly" game to take kids. It would inevitably be a day game, so as not to interfere with bed time; it would most likely not be sold out so tickets would be available and inexpensive, everything would be less crowded, and it wouldn't have the wild and crazy game atmosphere that night games and big rivalry games have. All of that came to fruition. We ended up getting Carole's tickets to the game (much better seats than ours) and her parking pass, so we were able to give ours to some friends from church. Win-win!
MaSha was traveling that weekend, I believe, so we knew we had to take Ryan with us again. Remember the last time that happened? It was rough. This time we were more prepared though and we also had the much closer parking pass! Huge difference.
This game was dubbed our Military Appreciation Game. I love the chosen Military Appreciate game every year. Dabo always wears camo pants, players get to wear purple, we get a jet flyover, and there are touching military remembrance events at halftime. How fitting that it was on the day we played our SC military school, The Citadel. It is just always a special day for our team and our school. Clemson has a very rich military history. I've posted several videos on here, because I loved this day and this game so much and I want to be able to remember it with videos and I want you to be able to kind of get a taste for what it was like, if you weren't there. So cool.
Anyway, I couldn't help but to want the boys to be in on Military Appreciation Day with their attire, so I got them all camo pants to wear with their jerseys. CUTE! These remain some of their favorite pants to wear. ;)
Everyone is so excited! That probably looks like I was being sarcastic, but I wasn't. They really WERE excited, even though this picture doesn't totally capture it.
Parking in Lot 2 is amazing. That is all.
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| Cutie pies hanging out in the trunk |
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| This guy is a snack eating machine |
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| Our only "real" tailgate of the season. Are you impressed?!?!? :) |
He was missing a few letters and almost fell a few times, but he's ALL IN. ;)
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| Thomas's buddies from work stopped by! |
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| It's Game Day! |
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| With Matt |
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| Checking out Tiger Band as they walk through the breezeway playing Tiger Rag - William and Matt O. |
Cool, cool military day traditions! I didn't get a picture of the flyover because it happens so quickly. It is unreal. It shakes the whole stadium. The power you feel coming off that jet is just incredible.
The video posted above is not mine, but is from YouTube. Can you feel that when the jets fly over?!?!?! Whew. Chills. Tears. All The Feels.
After that, skydivers fly in on parachutes into the stadium with the US flag and the Clemson flag. The Clemson flag guy is wearing the Tiger mascot costume and has the game ball. So cool! How many mascots can say that they delivered the game ball from 10,000 feet above the ground?!?!
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| Skydivers bring in the game ball |
The video above is also not mine (duh!), but it is from a Go Pro that the Tiger Skydiver was wearing when he brought in the game ball. Check out how nonchalantly he puts on his gloves. What?!?!?! I loved watching this.
Love these pics!
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| Peery Fam! |
Halftime at this game was incredible. First of all, they did a moment of silence, the band played Taps and ROTC did a 21 gun salute to honor the fallen soldiers. You honestly could have heard a pin drop in that stadium. Chills. Once again. Then, as a surprise to most people, Lee Greenwood came out and sang "God Bless the USA" with our band. AMAZING! I absolutely love that song! Can't feel much more patriotic than when you hear that song.
This one is {also} not my video, but instead of YouTube. Hope you enjoyed!
Typically, if we are ever still there at the end of the game (rare), the boys ask to go on to the field, as is a Clemson tradition for fans after every home game. Well, we are typically in the upper deck and can't even get to the field, even if we wanted to. This time, though, we had fantastic seats way down there in the lower deck, so when the boys asked, we were happy to oblige! It was fun for us grown-ups, too!
Stokes and William played, and rolled around on the field, and wrestled and had an absolute ball! I'm sure Thomas's arms were about to fall off from carrying Ryan, but he didn't complain.
Back in Lot 2, Stokes and William found some friends!
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| Cute cheerleader |
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| Tiger Band |
What a great day for a game! It was an honor to see all the military themed events. Clemson seriously does it right, each and every year.
The Citadel game was our last home game of the season. As you can probably tell, football seems to take over our lives during the fall. I love it, but it becomes our life. It's difficult to pack it up and travel to Clemson for an entire Saturday for 6 or 7 weekends in the fall. The away games revolve around where we will watch the game and require us to make plans around gametime, to avoid distractions. I wouldn't have it any other way, and I'm a loyal football fan, but I'm glad that football ends when it does and we get our weekends back. We had a little disappointment in the Sugar Bowl this year, after getting thoroughly whooped by Alabama, but it was the best bowl game to be invited to, so we're glad that we made it where we did. It wasn't the ending we wanted, and NOTHING can compete with last year, except another National Championship win, but it really was a great and successful season. So cheers to the Tigers, #1 in my heart, always!
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