Blue Raider FOOTBALL!!!

For those of you who may not know....my husband is a football FANATIC!! I, in turn have entered into the dark side with him. Since Lipscomb doesn't have football, I never knew what I was missing come college football time. Our weekends now consist of either going to a MTSU (Chris' alma mater) game, watching college football on TV and watching the NFL on Sunday. If we play our cards right, we can watch football nearly all week long these days. It is always a LONG summer between football and hockey season. We don't normally get into baseball too much (until the playoffs anyway).

Anytime that the Blue Raiders are playing and time permits, we can be found in the Grove tailgating with some of our friends. The earlier you get there, the better. For instance, Saturday's game started at 6:00 PM. I think we arrived in Murfreesboro and had everything unpacked and ready by around 10:00 AM. We had a FULL day. We normally cook a most excellent meal--all thanks to the guys. They are the ones in charge of the menu and cooking.

This year has been especially fun so far because our friends Daniel & Krystel have a little boy, Anderson. He will be 1 in October. Sam and Anderson hung out all day and kind of played. Krystel and I came to the conclusion that next year will be absolutely crazy--two little ones running around. Containment may be an issue. I guess that is where daddy comes into play!

Here are a few shots of the day (be sure to scroll down to the Redneck Tailgating experience)!!

We set up our tent we bought for the beach in hopes that we could try to contain Sam and keep him from eating ALL the dirt and grass around us.

Sam and Anderson playing together....actually Sam trying to figure out what Anderson is doing.

Our set up for the day.

The dreaded MTSU tattoo. This has been a thorn in my side since Sunday. Apparently, these things don't wash off with soap and water. My mom ended up taking Sam to church with her with this thing stuck on his face. It's Monday now and the tattoo is still there. Good times!! Maybe I've learned my lesson. (but he looked so cute with it)

I don't know how we managed it, but Sam actually got a short cat-nap in during the afternoon!

So, one of the best things about tailgating is to watch other people. As you can imagine there are all kinds of folks (especially students) having what they consider to be a good time at the game. This beat everything I've ever seen. Talk about a redneck tailgating experience...This guy drove up with water splashing out of his truck bed. He had filled the truck bed up with water to make a pseudo swimming pool. I wasn't brave enough to walk up to them and get picture of the water in the truck, so this shot will have to do. I love middle Tennessee!!

The ABSOLUTE best part of this day was seeing the Blue Raiders beat the Maryland Terrapins (or as Chris likes to call them, the Turtles). Last week's game opener was a bit of a disappointment. Not leaving much hope for the upcoming season. The win against Maryland gave everyone a little bit of hope that maybe the season can be salvaged!

My poor baby had such a long day. He fought sleep for the last quarter. Shame on mommy and daddy for keeping him out way past his bedtime!! I hope that Sam grows to love our traditions as much as I have come to!