Triple OverTime

September 21st -22nd

I am still in shock on our football game this weekend. Our Hokies took on the Marshall Herd. I knew it would be a difficult game but I never expected that game. But clearly I am getting ahead of myself.

Saturday morning we got up and out to tailgate at 8:30am. We had a huge crowd and a great time. I loved that we had so many people and so much food! The weather held up pretty well until just before the game started.

This week the team honored the military and wore (& will auction off) Orange & Maroon camo helmets & jerseys. They looked awesome.

It rained the entire game. It wasn't a heavy rain and at times I actually wondered if it was still raining it was so light (or I was just that wet). The game was pretty ugly and if I was totally honest, I didn't think we were going to pull off the win. But with only a few minutes left in the game, the Hokies made it into the end zone to send us into overtime. That is when the rain picked up, the wind started up and it started to get pretty cold. Overtime was pretty crazy, full of missed opportunities, missed field goals and blocked field goals. By the third overtime, I were starting to think the game would go on all night! But thankfully in the third overtime, Logan was able to run in the game winning touchdown and then complete the 2 point conversion. The defense held strong for Marshall's last possession and after a near end zone catch by Marshall on there 4th down, the game was over.

After an exciting game like that you almost forget about the rain and cold. But it seemed like I was one of the few that felt that way so instead of tailgating in the wet after the game, the crew decided to pack it up and head home to get warmed up and dried off.

The rest of the night we sent talking about the game and watching others. It was great to just hang out with friends and family.

On Sunday, we said good bye to Jeremy & Remy early and met my mom, Tom, Ryan, Caity & Mackenzie for brunch before mom & Tom headed home and then Jed and I headed into the mountains. This is such a great time of the year with cooler weather and the leaves starting to change so we pick a hike near Roanoke and headed up to McAfee's Knob.

It was a great hike, with great views. We were really excited to get out and enjoy it. After our hike, we made a really quick stop at the Greek Festival minutes before it closed so we could grab some of our favorite Greek desserts (we planned on more time here but McAfee's took a little longer then expected).

We finished the evening at dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants in Roanoke, Sal's. It was a really fun weekend.

An Away Game at Home

September 14th & 15th

This weekend the Hokies took on the ECU Pirates. Danielle was headed down to Greenville, NC on Friday night and coming back on Sunday. I had other stuff going on this weekend so I decided to pass on making the trip with everyone and by Saturday morning, I was starting to regret that decision.

Game time came and I was pacing the living room floor watching the game. It wasn't pretty and I am sure my neighbors knew when it wasn't. I did have to laugh at myself as I could only imagine what I must look like yelling, pacing and doing exercises in front of the tv as I watched my Hokies struggle.

By the fourth quarter, Scottie had joined me and our Hokies finished the game with a 15-10 victory.

Quickly after the game, I was off to some friends baby shower. I enjoyed catching up with people have it feels like forever since I had last seen them.

We all enjoying hanging out, catching up and celebrating Jackie, Evan and Baby Girl Oster.

That evening, I met up with Jed for dinner, football and catching up with him before we met Scottie on campus to just walk around and talk.

Scottie, your picture was too good not to put on the blog!

It was a great night, with great company.

On Sunday morning, the alarm went off at 5:50AM! Ugh. We had all signed up for a the Hokie Half Marathon. Scottie was running the half and Jed, Katie and I ran the 5K.

It was an early morning but I think we all had a great time.

The rest of the day was filled with church, lunch with Scottie before he headed home, an afternoon of football and dinner and ice cream with Megan & Danielle to end the day.

Football & Busch Gardens

September 7th & 8th

This weekend was an exciting weekend. We had our first home game against Western Carolina, the debut of the new Hokie Vision board & got to celebrate my niece's second birthday.

We had some friends come down for the day to tailgate and watch the game with us. It was pretty low key and a lot of fun.

The game was a lot of fun, HOT, but fun. Games are always fun when your team is playing well. Hokie Vision looked AMAZING and I was so proud of Jed and everyone else that put in all the crazy hours, stressful days and ridiculous demands.

Everything was rolling great until about half time, there were a few hiccups but most no one would really know until a minute or two into the third quarter when the entire Video board just went blue... and stayed that way for almost the rest of the quarter. Danielle and I felt awful for them. But by the fourth quarter they were back up and running.

Our team was looking good and our receivers were catching a lot more passes. All in all a successful day in my book. We won the game 45-3.

Once Jed was done working a few hours after the game, we immediately hopped in the car and headed east to Williamsburg. On Sunday morning, we met Ben, Shelby, Korryn, my mom & Tom for a day in Busch Gardens to celebrate Korryn's 2nd birthday.

We all had a great time running around and playing for the day. Korryn wasn't much of a fan of most of the rides but loved the little play areas and all the space to just run and laugh and go. Maybe next year she will understand a little more. We all took turns watching Korryn as we had the chance to ride a few roller coasters as well. It wasn't too hot and we never had to wait more then 5 minutes for any ride. The perfect day at an amusement park!

It was so much fun spending time with Korryn and the family. We can't wait for the next adventure with them.

And it begins...

August 30th - 31st

This weekend Danielle and I headed south to Atlanta to watch our beloved Hokies take on Alabama. I didn't have the best feeling about the game but I knew we would have a great time down there. We were both able to get off work early to get on the road. As you can imagine, hotels were difficult to come by when you are looking in an area that is having a big football game (along with a ton of other events) on a holiday weekend so we were happy to find something outside of the city that we could afford. All that to say, we still weren't happy with that situation so as Danielle drove I looked and looked to find us something better. Can you believe that we were able to get into the team hotel for the same price!? We were really excited and the place was awesome.

Once we got there, we quickly dropped our stuff in the room and went to hang out with Jed and the rest of the video crew. One of the old students that use to work in the office, Lauren, lives in Atlanta and came to meet for drinks and dessert.

Mark, Lauren, Brian, Jed & Tom

Game day we slept in a bit and took our time getting ready. We made it out the door to go to lunch before the big lunch rush. Danielle is from this area so she knew the perfect area to check out, Little Five Points. It is the home of an awesome restaurant called the Vortex. We had a fantastic time at lunch and hanging out in the neighborhood for a while.

But before long, it was time to head towards the stadium. There was a lot going on downtown and we wanted to get down there before the traffic got really bad. After our walk from the parking area, we made a stop at the CNN Center. It was nice to get in the AC as it was very hot outside.

After walking around in there for a while, it was time to brave the heat again. We headed straight for the World of Coca-Cola. The line was long and we really didn't care about the museum part, we had both experienced that. We wanted to taste sodas from around the world. Unfortunately, you can't taste the soda's without going through the museum so we settled for the gift shop and a regular coke and orange fanta.

We considered the World of Coca-Cola a success so we decided to go check out the gift shop at the Georgia Aquarium across the way. Unfortunately, you can't go to the gift shop with out paying for general admission. As the manager was telling us that she then immediately said, "But if you follow, Anthony he will take you in." We were so excited. We slide right past the ticket area, security and a few fish tanks where Anthony let us shop in the gift shop while we looked on. He was so nice that Danielle was going to offer him our extra ticket but then we learned he had just graduated from Alabama so the deal was off.

As we wondered around Centennial Park, we came upon the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game Concert starring Uncle Cracker and Sheryl Crow. We caught Uncle Cracker's last song before we went to met up with Tim & Wendy.

The four of us walked around in search for food for Tim & Wendy and wandered passed DragonCon. This is a site to see and I wish I would have had more time to just sit and watch. This is how it is described on the website, "We are the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction & fantasy, games, comics, literature, arts, music and film in the universe." They had people dressed up in all kinds of things and different themed parties all the time. We saw someone dressed as Mario, Jack Sparrow, and a many others. It was like a huge Halloween party with crazy good costumes!

On our way back around the block, we saw an incredibly amazing tailgating vehicle. Maybe one day we will have something like this.

But today, we settled with just walking around the city, finding a Vietnamese food truck, Viet-Nomie's and watching/listening to Sheryl Crow. Time flew by and before long we were headed into the stadium.

We all had a great time at the game, made some new friends and cheered on our Hokies. We lost 35-10 but our defense looked great and we had a fantastic running game against the #1 team in the country right now. I was pretty worried about our team this year but after there performance in this game, I have a renewed faith in our team. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty to work on but I think we can do it.

Steve, Brad, Danielle & I

After the game, Danielle and I hopped in the car and started the drive home. It was a little challenging with traffic, late night, shady gas stations, disgusting bathrooms, and lots of loud music but we made it home at 4:30am on Sunday morning, very happy that we had made the trip.

We are hoping for a great rest of the season and look forward to our first home game next week.