Homecoming

The weekend after the Missouri game, we headed back down to Gainesville for Homecoming. My parents and Leslie also came up, so it was a very Gator-rific family weekend :)

Of all the years I've gone to Homecoming, I've never ran the Gator Gallop. It's a 2 mile race that kicks off the parade - and since I was training for a half marathon at the time, it was a nice change of pace from the longer runs I had been doing. I somehow convinced my mom and Leslie to run, and then they convinced our cousins, Tyler and Jenna, to run with us, too. This was mom's first race ever and she was glad it didn't kill her! Time to start training for next year.

Mom, Leslie, Jenna, Tyler & me

After the race, we planned on watching the parade, but we were starving and headed to lunch instead. We stopped by for just a minute and saw the Hare Krishna float.

Later that night we all went to Copper Monkey for burgers and beers before heading to Gator Growl. 

Leslie, me, Sarah & Paul, and Bo

For those of you non-Gators, Gator Growl is the largest student-run pep rally in the world and is held in the stadium. It was a decent show, but in recent years it hasn't been nearly as good as it used to be when I was younger. My favorite part is always the skits that make fun of other teams and schools, but every year there seem to be less and less of those. Tracy Morgan was the comedian this year and he was hilarious.

After Growl we went to Gator City to try and watch the season opener basketball game, but it was cancelled due to mist on the air craft carrier in Jacksonville. So we just hung out at the bar all night. Funny how I rarely went to Gator City as a student, but now it seems to be our bar of choice.

We played Louisiana-Lafayette, and (again) I cannot tell you what a stressful game this was - theme of the season this year!! The last time Bo and I went to the homecoming game was a few years ago when we lost against Mississippi State. We were *thisclose* to deciding we would never go back for homecoming since we were losing up until the last three minutes of the game, when our team made a miraculous come back and scored two touchdowns at the very end to win the game. Against a team we should have killed. We just took a deep breath and couldn't believe this team was now 9-and-1.

meanwhile, the rest of the family was on the complete opposite side/end of the stadium

siblings <3

just missing Mike!

As if that wasn't enough Gator events all in one weekend, we finished it off with a basketball game against Alabama State on Sunday. Since the game Friday night was cancelled, this one ended up being the season opener. Bo and I hadn't been to a home basketball game since we were students, so it was nice being back in the O'Dome. We left a little early to head back home, but they ended up winning 84-35. Total domination. Our football team should take some notes ;)

finally, a picture of all of us together :)

Such a great family Gator weekend!