National Champions!!!

As long as I live, I will never, ever forget this experience.  Three months later and I still feel like it's a dream!

Before we beat Ohio State, Richard had booked our flights to Orlando.  We had to cancel by midnight of the Ohio State game.  It became apparent that we wouldn't need to do that! We only had a short time to get our trip planned and to coordinate with our Clemson friends.  

We ended up renting a house in Davenport, FL which was in between Tampa and Orlando closer to the Orlando side.  It was a perfect  and brand new 5 bedroom house.  I have zero photos from there because we didn't spend much time there, but it was great for us!  We did spend some time driving back and forth to Tampa.  We were a little  disappointed in Tampa's overall setup compared to that of Phoenix last year.  Phoenix was much more organized and everything seemed to be all together.  Tampa was spread out.  There wasn't enough space for everyone.  There were next to ZERO restaurants to eat at downtown.  It was crazy!  Not to mention, Florida had their winter the four days that we were there.  It was 80+ degrees the day before we arrived and 80+ degrees the day we left.  Crazy!!

The unorganized Tampa events didn't keep us from having a good time though!! We had to fly in a day early to avoid the snow apocalypse that was expected in Raleigh (that never actually came!).  Luckily, Nanny was already planned to be here that day and was able to take us to the airport while the girls were at school.  We celebrated Matthew's birthday the first night we were there over some yummy Mexican food.

The next day, the rest of our crew arrived and we checked in to our house.  We drove down to Tampa to discover that it was TOO COLD for outdoor concerts.  There wasn't any real indoor restaurants and/or bars that could accommodate all of the people who were there.  We headed back towards our house where we stumbled upon a bar just across the street from our neighborhood.  They were having Saturday night karoke.  It was SO fun!  None of us joined in on the singing because there were legit people singing there.  This one chick sang just like Adele and that is hard to do!  Another older gentleman looked just like Neil Diamond and what do you know???  He could sing like him, too! He sang Sweet Caroline and had the entire bar singing.  It was a great day with great friends!!

On the way to Tampa!

The karaoke bar in Davenport!

Love Katrina to pieces!!

We had so much fun together!  We had to fit in the front seat together on the way home because some people left early in the other car.  The rest of us had to squish into the Tahoe that was left!

On Day 2, we ventured back to Tampa for FanFest.  It was pretty neat especially for kids. We got to see the pep rally and some other cool things.  

After leaving fan fest, we made our way across the waterway to a restaurant that overlooked the water.  We had lunch and hung out there for a while.  

Richard and Matt left to go to the casino for the night.

After the first restaurant, we made our way down to Champions Sports Bar.  We took over some friends' table so we didn't have to wait.  We enjoyed more food and drinks.  Usher was playing that night outside.  I REALLY wanted to see him, but it was too cold and windy for this chick.  A few people stayed, but weren't able to get in because there were so many people there.  It was probably a good thing because we all needed to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the big game the next day!!

After we finally coordinated everyone to arrive at our house, we had to pause for some selfies!

I had so much fun with these girls!!

We were some of the first in the lot to arrive.  Shocking, I know!  We were really close to the stadium.  It was crazy how many people we actually knew that were there.  It was like a Wren High School reunion.  I had the best time catching up with everyone, but it always go by in a flash!

We ran into our two favorite twins from high school  Mandy and I cheered with them back in the day.  It was great to see them!!

Our crew!!

Love this photo of us!!  Love my sister in law!!

My college roommate, Kelly, was there!  I was so excited to see her!!  I had no idea that she was even coming!

Then, our good high school buddy, Scott, showed up at our tailgate.  We had lots of laughs with him!

Richard was anxious to get in to the stadium.  We left before everyone else and ran into our favorite former football player.  Love me some Hollywood!!

I'm telling you, this was the best time!!

We were all smiles!  Could not stop grinning!

This was one of my favorite moments of the night.  

The captains were on the field before the game in a circle praying!  This was the first time that night that my eyes cried, but definitely not the last!!

I will never be able to describe in words what happened at this point.  Ever.  Richard took his jacket off to "unleash" the lucky sweater that belonged to my Dad.  He swears we were losing because he had it covered up.  Sure enough as soon as he took it off, we marched down the field like we owned it!  We were in the end zone right where Renfrow caught the winning ball.  OMG!!  Unbelievable!  The next few photos were taken during that LONG minute when they were trying to determine how much time needed to be put back on the clock.  It was obvious that we were going to win, but I was still doubting.  I kept asking Richard if there was anything that they could do to take this away from us?  I honestly thought that my heart would jump out of my skin.  

When that final second ticked off of that clock, I cried.  I mean, I wept.  Richard and I both grew up Clemson fans.  I've been screaming "Go Tigers" since I could talk.  It's in our blood.  We never really imagined Clemson being National Champions.  What we really never imagined was that this would happen with us in attendance.  It was so surreal.  I was shaking.  I was hugging Richard.  I was crying, laughing, screaming, jumping.  This was really happening to the Clemson Tigers!!  This team and these fans have waiting SO long to get back to this place.  I am so thankful to Richard for working so hard and for providing for our family so that we can attend events such as this.  I will never forget it!

My phone was dead so these are all from Richard's phone.  

Pure happiness!  We moved over one section so we could celebrate with Shannon, Allison, Patrick, and Rion.

When we got back to the tailgate, it was the happiest party EVER!!  Everyone drank a Natty to celebrate winning the Natty.  We sang.  We danced.  We celebrated the biggest win ever!!  We were one of the first cars to arrive in that parking lot and we were the last one to leave.  I drove one car back to the house which was 45 minutes away.  We got in bed around 4:30 AM and had to be back to the airport by 9:00.  We were surviving on 3 hours of sleep, but it was so worth it! 

Happiness under a crazy hat!!

Our blood runneth orange!  This was truly the experience of a lifetime and I'm so glad that I got to celebrate it with Richard and some of our favorite Clemson friends!  Go Tigers!!