We love Auburn. It has always been a part of our family and I’m assuming it always will. It’s not just about football, but about the town, traditions, and fellowship. Neither of us went to school there, but Jonathan always wished he did. He was practical (full scholarship to UAH) and a good son. When Kyndal had the choice to be practical (great scholarship to UAH) or live a dream (AU), we encouraged her to live a dream. Through her experience, we’ve been able to live so many great experiences with her. There’s truly nothing like being in Auburn on gameday weekends.
Jonathan had so many people ask him about his sunglasses. He loved Blenders before Coach Prime made them a huge thing. If you want $30 off a pair of Blenders, click HERE for the link.
Auburn/ Georgia Weekend
We were able to go down on Friday, early enough to do some things downtown, that are challenging to do on game day. I had a fabulous Josie (Duke) sighting in the Auburn bookstore. I love seeing these kids from home doing their thing, in their new environments. We met up with Kyndal and perused the shops downtown. Toomer’s has a lemonade FREEZE now, and I had to try it ( with vanilla, of course) and it was delish. K had a super busy weekend hosting friends, so that was our one and only Kyndal sighting for the weekend.
We met up with our friends Donald and Nicole, who were our hosts for the night and loved catching up with them. The plan was to go to the RV park for food trucks and a live band to meet up with the Cooks, our dear friends that we almost always get to see on gamedays, but never take pictures of! Y’all, I have never seen anything like the Friday night at the RV park, but it was so much fun and the band was great.
CharCuties
My dear friend April, and her daughter Kenz, are the creators of the fabulous charCuties business. They did a great job creating our hostess gifts. I mean, just look at these boxes. They travel well and were a huge hit! You can’t beat the price or the selection provided!! I’ve linked their FB and IG accounts. Go ahead and schedule one for your holiday parties. You will not be disappointed!
Gameday
I’m officially 6 weeks post-op at this point and am no longer in a daily splint, other than the ones I have for stretching and the one I sleep in, but not the one that was my protection. I’m not going to lie, walking around in a sea of people, unprotected, caused a little anxiety. I was so afraid someone was going to squeeze my hand or bump me, but no one did. Jonathan is super protective too so he tried to stay on my left side to intercept any rogue people. 🙂
The Barksdales and Walkers. We go back to a time before we even had children. Jonathan and Donald worked together at 2 different companies, and now collaborate on projects together.
Tailgating, Tiger Walk, 4 Corners, and all the pregame rituals are truly so much fun. My Mr. Mayor loves meeting new people and becoming new friends. We got to experience this gameday with Kenny’s brother Rauli, and girlfriend Heather (a Georgia gal). Rauli and Heather were great to host Kyndal this summer during her summer internship in Atlanta. Since it was a hybrid role, she could mostly work from Auburn but needed to be in Atlanta on special occasions. Rauli and Jonathan enjoyed sitting beside each other where they could high-five etc. If the 12th man’s energy could’ve willed the Tigers to a win, I know a couple who gave it their best shot.
Casie. Jonathan. Rauli. Heather. (Aren’t they fabulous?!!)
It wasn’t a night to roll Toomer’s Corner, but instead, we walked back to the condo and visited with our friends. We decided to get back on the road and said our goodbyes. One of my random favorite things about gameday is how many “local” people you run into even though there are over 100,000 people walking around. Brittany and I go waaaaay back and there she was, sitting just 4 rows down from us! Small world!
Gameday Essentials
Fun fact: I took this video on Saturday, mainly because I love the different varieties of flyovers Auburn uses as part of the pregame activities. Later in the week, we found out that Kyndal’s roommate, Beau, got accepted to be an Apache Helicopter pilot (she’s currently in ROTC). I thought the symbolism and timing of this was perfect. Congrats to Beau and thank you for your service to our country!