An Orange and Blue Weekend

I’ve had a bit of the bloggy blahs lately but thought I'd hop on the computer this morning, show it some love and post a little recap (and a few pictures that are just too precious not to share!) of the lovely, sunshiney weekend we spent at our beloved Alma Mater. We always look forward to catching up with old friends and assessing the next season’s football team at UF’s Alumni Weekend.

We were once again able to score rooms at the on-campus hotel! We're trying to make this a tradition but they are really in-demand and we have to remember to call on THE DAY they open reservations! We’ve been able to get one a few times before and were so excited to get one this time. The hotel is at the top of the student union and is where all of the important visitors to the university stay. It’s one of best-kept secrets of our school and our girls get such a kick out of staying there! And a room with a balcony overlooking Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is a room with a view indeed!

Before the football scrimmage on Saturday, we took our girls on one of our usual brainwashing sessions tours of the campus. We love those sentimental strolls around our old stompin' ground and down memory lane! But I must admit to having mixed feelings about reporting that our little scheme (to get our girls to all choose to attend UF but to think that it was all their own idea) is apparently working. When Miss M mentioned that she plans to ride a bicycle to class when she goes to this school in 11 years, we almost fainted! Our firstborn will be headed to college in only 11 years?!?! That’s like, tomorrow!!! We just took the training wheels off her glittery flowery purpley bicycle!!!!! WHY OH WHY do they grow up so fast? I’m really not sure if I'll be ready.

And of course, we felt ANCIENT when we realized that this year’s freshman class was not even BORN when we were freshman?!?!?! How did WE get so OLD?????

A generous friend with connections gave us tickets to watch the Orange and Blue Debut from the skyboxes! Thanks, K! What a treat! I could get used to football games at the Swamp with seatbacks, ceiling fans, air-conditioned lounges and complementary sweet tea! Being near the railings made me a little woozy (I'm a nervous nellie when it comes to heights!) but the seats a few rows back were perfect!

The Champions Club--ooh la la!

Full hands, full heart! And A/C ! This is the Life! It's not a ballgame without hotdogs! Little Commentator! Another Daddy's Girl! My Peeps! Three new statues gracing the outside of the stadium--UF Heisman winners: Spurrier, Tebow and Wuerffel--were unveiled during the game.

Another highlight of the weekend was dinner at Satchel’s—a fun, funky pizza restaurant that has become a Gainesville favorite in recent years. We loved the playgrounds, art, live music, relaxed ambiance. And especially the company! We were thrilled to be able to meet up with the L Family, one of the first families we connected with when we were considering adopting from Ethiopia. We really enjoyed catching up with S and H and our children play together wonderfully. They just started the process to adopt again—this time a little girl from China! They also started a blog. You can visit them HERE. So thankful God has brought this sweet family into our lives and looking forward to a long and growing friendship with them!

Our little artist (she drew that Gator!):

The B and L kiddos:

Alumni Weekend Pictures from 2010 are HERE. Alumni Weekend Pictures from 2009 are HERE! Love looking back at how much our girls have changed! I need to post some pre-blog pictures of the big girls. They were so cute!