Recently after talking with a few people who used to read my blog (when I actually blogged), I realized that I missed blogging! I like sharing my faith.....my blessings, my struggles.....putting my thoughts into words is something that I like to do, and I hope that it can serve as an encouragement to others as well. Plus, I really do like recording some of our family events.
So....to play a little catch up....
Our family (minus Olivia and Brian), the Peters family (Julie, Sam, and Mae), the Mims family (Kelly and Lynn and their four kids plus Parker's wife, Alyssa), the Johnsey family (Joe and Leanna and their four kids), and the Green family (Mike and Amy and their three kids) all planned our every other January trip to Disney World for January 2-9. We normally go later in the month, but our college kids wanted to come too, so we had to move our trip up earlier in the month before their classes began. (Our headcount for Disney World was 26.)
Sometime in December, it was announced that Mississippi State would be playing in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida on New Year's Day. Kelly sent out a group text asking if we were interested in going to Florida a couple of days earlier to go to the game. Since Jimmy was already off because of his holiday schedule, we said, Yes! The Mims and Johnsey families were in too, so we bought tickets, reserved hotel rooms, and bumped up our departure date. The Peters and Green families joined us at Disney World like they had originally planned.
So. We left at 3:00 AM on December 31 for the 12 hour drive to Tampa. Our goal was to make the Outback Bowl parade in Ybor City at 5:00 PM. We made it! Even though Clay was involved in a minor car accident on I-75 in Georgia, we still made it. Barely. And we were tired, and we looked like we had been on the road all day with little or no sleep! (Lynn never even went to bed the night/morning before we left.....I slept 2-3 hours I think).
at the parade...running on caffeine and cowbells!
Fun Fact: A local news reporter asked me a few questions about our trip to Tampa, our going to the bowl game, etc.
The crowd was so loud, and I don't even remember what I said! But it was on the news that night!
The kids were also featured on the front page of our local newspaper on January 1, with a story about our families traveling to the Outback Bowl.
Here we are the morning before the game.
And here is the whole crew!
Jimmy and Me
We arrived about 2 hours before the game began so we could enjoy all the pregame festivities and just take in being at a professional football stadium. It really was a lot of fun, and the weather was beautiful!
Our family of five
We sat in front of the pirate ship which was cool!
Sadly, Mississippi State lost the game to Iowa. Iowa was considered the home team, and it certainly felt like they had a home team advantage in some areas. The announcers kept making it a point to remind us that this was Iowa's 6th Outback Bowl appearance! However, the Iowa fans that I met were super nice. And all of us enjoyed the sunshine!
After the game we searched for some time to find a Cuban restaurant that was open on New Year's Day. We were joined by Jimmy and Leanna's first cousin, Warren and his family too. Next we returned to our hotel to repack and get ready for our early morning departure the next day to Disney World!
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