Most of us want to go to the biggest home game of the year anyway, so this year we picked the Florida-Alabama game which was two weekends ago. Though, considering the past two reunions have been losses...next year we will probably pick a game where we have a better chance at actually winning. It has been far too long since many of us have seen a Gator win in the Swamp.
We are all spread across the country now, so it's been a great way to see so many good friends in one weekend and catch up with everyone. Sometimes we get really lucky and have special guests show up who have flown in town from far away. This year was by far the biggest surprise, when Alisha booked a last minute flight from San Diego and showed up at Swamp on Friday night!! It was an awesome start to the weekend.
Later on that evening, my family met up with us for dinner. Clearly we were busy chatting since we somehow managed to go the entire night with taking only a few pictures. If you know my family, you know this is an extremely rare occurrence, since we usually each have our own camera and have hundreds of the exact same photos.
As the night went on, more and more people showed up - everyone came straight to the bar as soon as they got in town.
My sister Leslie and her boyfriend Mike graciously let us all
A few other people came over to join us, since it was Katrina's birthday that day and we had a celebration in store for her :)
Our tailgate has gotten a little bit bigger and a little more extravagant every year we've done it. This year we really outdid ourselves. We had the usual excessive amounts of beer, yummy foods, music, and tailgating games. But this year, the guys brought a TV...
...we added a few more games...
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| Beer Pong |
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| Washers |
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| Cornhole |
...and Mark's friend Andrew smoked a 100+ pound pig! He stayed up all night and the meat turned out amazing, so for the rest of us his efforts were very much appreciated!
We could not have asked for a more perfect tailgating day. It was a night game, so we had the entire day together.
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| Alisha & Mason! |
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| Mom, Paul, Dad & Leslie |
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| Sarah, Me & Kelly |
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| Dad, Mom, me & Leslie |
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| me & Erin |
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| Bo and his cousins Bryan & Stewart |
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| Susan, Sarah & me |
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| sisters :) |
The only thing is, now we've set the standard really high for future tailgates.... which I don't really see as a problem ;)
As for the game - well, we all know how that ended. Sadly the best part of the game was over in the first 19 seconds, when we scored our only touchdown. Our poor quarterback got injured in the first half, and it got pretty ugly after that. I forgot to take a picture of us before the game, and after Bama took the lead, we weren't exactly in a picture-taking mood - especially since we were sitting in the Bama section. But regardless of the score... as the song goes, in all kinds of weather we'll all stick together for F-L-O-R-I-D-A!
