In All Kinds of Weather

When we planned out our football games for this season over a year ago and realized we'd be out of town every single weekend of November, we knew it was going to be a crazy month. Add to that, we spent a week in Florida for Thanksgiving (more to come on that!) and Bo ended up having to travel for work the remaining weeks of the month. I think in total he spent maybe 4 days at home - it was rough. Add to that, the Gators didn't win a single game. Not one. We stayed faithful to our plans and went to each and every game, and ohmygosh was it depressing. Especially considering we lost the last two games in October as well (thankfully we did not go to those). Attending 5 out of the 7 consecutive losses was not at all how we envisioned the season going. But as the song goes... in all kinds of weather, we all stick together.

So without further ado, here's November in a nutshell....

Loss #1: Georgia, 20-23

This was officially our last year staying in St. Simons with our UGA frenemies. Don't get me wrong we always have a great time with them at the rental house and tailgating but I'm ready to return to staying in Jacksonville.  Losses are that much tougher when you have an hour drive to go hang out with a bunch of bulldogs the rest of the evening. Ugh

Loss #2: Vanderbilt, 17-34

 Are you kidding me?! We hadn't lost to Vanderbilt in 25 years. Similar to the Kentucky game, if we broke that winning streak I didn't want to be there for it. We always stay until the bitter end of each game, but this was just disgusting, and once the 3rd quarter was over we just couldn't take it anymore and left. It was even our homecoming game. At least we had planned ahead of time to go back to Atlanta after the game since it was at noon, so, we had that going for us which was nice.

Loss #3: South Carolina, 14-19

Very much expected to lose this game, so it was somewhat of a moral victory that we only lost 19-15. This was our first visit to Columbia and we enjoyed it - SEC campus #10 for us! The game wasn't until 7pm so we drove there that morning and got in town just after lunch time. The football stadium is off-campus near the fairgrounds so it actually felt like tailgating for a pro game. We had a great day of tailgating with the few friends who stayed committed to going ;)  Though it was weird not being able to walk around campus during the day, so we went by the next morning on our way home. We liked their stadium a lot, but if I never hear "Sandstorm" again it will be too soon.

Loss #4: Georgia Southern, 20-26

Ouch. In the history of Florida football this was our first loss ever to an FCS team. Thankfully, this was just a pit stop in Gainesville for a few hours to break up our drive from Atlanta down to West Palm. Yes, that was a very long day.

Loss #5: FSU, 7-37

Also expected to lose this game and we were actually surprised it wasn't any worse. They are going to the national championship game, so we are now rooting for Auburn to beat them. I must emphasize how very proud I was of our fans during that game, for showing up and cheering on our team despite how poorly this season has gone. And we at least had a sense of humor and came up with some pretty clever cheers that aren't exactly appropriate for this family-friendly blog ;)

Before. During. After. Couldn't even pretend for a smile pic at this point..!

It was a really pitiful season and next year has to be better. It's the first time we've had a losing record in my lifetime (and then some...since 1979!) and the first time we are not going to a bowl game since 1990, which is somewhat of a blessing so I don't have to stress about another game. So glad this season is finally over!

Fall Festivities

In the midst of all the gator games we attended, we still kept ourselves pretty busy during the little time we spent here in Atlanta this fall. The weather usually makes this the prettiest season but it was actually pretty miserable when we were here, either rainy or cold or both. Not that it held us back at all - you know we can't sit still for very long anyway.

First up, the Decatur Craft Beer Festival - our favorite! Lots of beer and lots of friends, it was such a great day. The setup was a little better this year, though some of the beers we most looked forward to were not there. Plus, the rain. Better luck next year.

sporting our gator gear during the Missouri loss...

The very next day we went to the Stone Mountain Highland Games with Josh's family and a few more friends each year. A full day of beer followed by a full day of scotch required a full week of recovery...

Bo's tent!

The weekend after that, I ran the Atlanta 10 Miler road race with Adrienne and Katie. We had been training for a few months and did better than expected considering there were TEN hills - one every mile! Good thing we didn't know that in advance or we might have psyched ourselves out. Katie is a little faster than us, so Adrienne and I ran the whole thing together, just like we did for our first half marathon (also here in Atlanta) back in 2007. And we even ran about the same pace as back then, finishing in 1:41 (pace of almost exactly a 10 minute mile, which was our goal). We considered it a total success! And then we rewarded ourselves with brunch and drinks at Carroll Street Cafe and a foot massage at Treat Your Feet - highly recommend both of these! Stole a few of these pics from the website...oops

it was freeeezing that morning!

we did it!!

Love having my running buddy back :)

And last but not least, Halloween! We carved our pumpkins a few days in advance while roasting pumpkin seeds and watching not-so scary movies (I am such a wuss). The puppies were not-so good little helpers.

check out Molly's crazy eyes. going in for the kill while both parents are occupied

guess whose is whose?!

And on that note, I'm off to start decorating for Christmas! Hopefully I'll get through all my Thanksgiving pics sooner rather than later since I've already lapped myself in holidays ;)