HAYNES OUR WAY: January 2011

For those that don't know, my husband had no intention of going to Auburn. It wasn't on his radar. He grew up in Augusta, Georgia where the majority of his friends planned to go to UGA from birth. He intended to follow. His parents, not being from Georgia, encouraged him to look at other schools and not just to follow his high school friends to UGA. When he visited Auburn, he instantly fell in love. He loved everything about Auburn, the people, the campus, the entire atmosphere. He was completely sold. He knows it was totally a God thing that he was forced to explore other options. I on the other hand, had known for years that Auburn was where I would go. We both became part of the Auburn family in the fall of 1996 as incoming freshman. We met at the end of our junior year. Our first date was to an Auburn v Ole Miss game (which we lost). We got engaged in front of Samford Hall. We got married at Auburn United Methodist Church. We were season ticket holders for many years (budget cuts aka: kids). We still travel to games when we can. Auburn will always and forever be a very special place for both of us.

Needless to say nothing was going to stop us from going to Glendale to watch our beloved Auburn Tigers go on a Duck hunt. We flew out on Sunday morning. We are so thankful that we had a morning flight since Snowmageddon slammed Atlanta Sunday night. Our flight out was fantastic (well except for the fact that we were in the last row of the plane). It was completely full of Auburn fans. The crew even played band music over the speaker. It was a mini pep rally in the sky. When we landed Lauren and Luke picked us up from the airport. They live in New Mexico and were able to drive to Arizona. We headed straight to Scottsdale to try and catch the Auburn pep rally. We knew we were cutting it close and we did in fact miss it but we got to walk around Scottsdale, eat lunch and soak up the Auburn atmosphere. And it really was an Auburn atmosphere. The "Auburn Family is ALL IN" motto was taken extremely seriously. The Auburn fans outnumbered the Duck fans probably 5 to 1 maybe more. We enjoyed our afternoon in Scottsdale and then headed to our hotel and then an evening out at West Gate. This is an area around the stadium with lots of restaurants and shops. It was really nice. Auburn was sponsored by Under Armor. They went all out for us. Auburn had a huge billboards, commercials running, and a tent with Auburn Under Armor merchandise. Nike sponsored the Ducks. They had nothing around. Not one sign. I almost felt bad for them. Almost.

We just missed the pep rally. War Eagle anyway!

Lunch in Scottsdale

Don't worry Under Armor, we will Protect This House!

Free cotton candy

Ridin' LD Style (see my previous post if you missed it)

Tailgate time:

Lauren and Luke were in charge of the tailgate since they had their truck and were able to bring a bunch of stuff from New Mexico. Monday morning we drove around and picked up all the food and drinks for the tailgate. Apparently Arizona doesn't really care for tailgating, the rules stated that we could not park until 12:30. That's just absurd. People just drove around the stadium causing more traffic until they were allowed to park. It was dumb. Once we FINALLY were able to park we got all 4 or 5 of the cars in our group spots right together. Lauren and Luke did an awesome job setting up the tailgate. They thought of everything we needed. Thanks y'all!.

I got to touch the Heisman Trophy

Setting up the tailgate

I met up with two of the girls who lived in my freshman dorm, Marjorie and Heather.

The Stadium

Lauren drinking some Cammie Cam Juice

Lauren and Luke

Game Time:

Two hours before kick off we headed into the stadium. The security at this stadium was in one word AWFUL! It's like they had no plan for this many people. Yet they hosted the Fiesta Bowl just the week before. We didn't get it. It was slow, inefficient, and annoying but we finally got through and made our way to our seats. I was so excited. My heart was beating so fast. Tears were forming in my eyes. I thought I was going to pass out. Literally. Auburn fans dominated that stadium. I've watched the game on tv and the cameras did a good job of making the stadium look equally divided. However, I assure you Auburn owned 75% of that stadium. We had great seats except of one large, blaring, rude, annoying, mean Oregon man sitting unfortunately right next to me. We were in the corner of the Auburn endzone (the game winning end zone. Woo Hoo!). We had a great view of the field. The Game Day crew from ESPN sat right next to our section. We could have reached out and touched Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, Nick and Urban. Well maybe not literally but we were very close. The game was hard to watch for many reasons, but the main one being how slippery the field was. It was down right annoying and painful to watch players slipping everywhere. My favorite moments of the game were:

1 - The Kodi Burns touchdown. I absolutely love Kodi and was beyond happy that he got the first touchdown of the National Championship game.

2- Our goal line stands. Who leaves Nick Fairley unblocked? The Ducks deserve to lose just for that reason alone.

2 - Michael Dyer. Michael Dyer. Michael Dyer. He is freshman and he is awesome.

3- The game winning field goal (obviously).

I'm pretty sure I lost about 10 years off of my life during the game. When it was over, I cried out of pure joy and exhaustion. We stayed in the stadium for a long time celebrating with fans, the team, the coaches, and the band. I didn't want to leave. When it was finally starting to clear out I walked down to the first row and asked a very nice security woman if she would get some of the confetti from the field for me. She did. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it, but I wanted it anyway.

Pregame

Our neighbors

It's Great to be an Auburn Tiger! Let the celebrating begin!

Auburn Love!

After game press conference

Waiting for my confetti

We got up bright and early Tuesday morning to catch our flight back to Atlanta. A lot of people we talked to had their flights delayed. They all had connecting flights through northern cities though. Ours was a direct flight to Atlanta and was on time. We enjoyed another Auburn filled airplane ride back. The airplane crew even sported Auburn hats for the ride. We landed in Atlanta early. We couldn't wait to get home and get some sleep. Wait what's that, no one can come get us? What do you mean our flight landed just fine? Really no one can come get us? That's right, no one can come because of Snowmageddon. We were finally able to get a friend to meet us at the Dunwoody Marta station and drive us home. The ice hung around for a few more days and then finally decided to melt. According to weather reports we may get more snow next week! Craziness!

We had a great Christmas this year in our own home with my parents, Grandma and Pap Pap. To make it even better, it was a White Christmas. Altogether we got about 2 or 3 inches of snow. It even lasted a few days before it was all melted away. A few days after Christmas we headed down to visit Gran and PaPa in Augusta for a few days. The girls got to experience Christmas all over again.

Both girls got their much desired Pillow Pets. Curly got a pink pig pillow pet which was especially hard for Santa to find. The Bear got a unicorn one which was readily available in any store that sold Pillow Pets. The girls have had a lot of fun playing with all their new toys. I've had a ton of fun arranging and rearranging the play room tying to find the best way to fit it all in neatly =0). The biggest gift came from Aunt Katie and Aunt Jenna and Uncle Prem, a big trampoline. They are coming up in a few weeks to put it together. The girls are very eager to start jumping.

I'd write more but it's all about the pictures on Christmas so here you go...