The Spirit of Aggieland

I have to start out by saying that I'm so excited to be blogging about this!

Last night was my first Aggie football game to attend since I graduated seven years ago. I have such a renewed love for my school and for my diploma which is sitting in my closet in a maroon frame that doesn't match the rest of my house. Maybe I'll finally hang it up.

I fell in love with Aggieland when I went to my first A&M football game in sixth grade. My Uncle Mike, who's an Aggie, took my dad and me to the t.u. game on Thanksgiving Day and from then on I bled maroon.

I've been waiting with great anticipation for Jackson to be at the right age to go to his first game. Curtis and I had been thinking about giving it a try and we ended up finding 4 great tickets online for yesterday's game. We invited Sara, our awesome babysitter, to come with us because we had an extra ticket and thought we could use an extra set of arms. I considered leaving Annabeth with Sara at our house, but she's been refusing the bottle since early August and I was afraid to leave her that long. It seemed like a better plan to go all together.

So the Jones family got decked out in some new Aggie gear. We had a hard time finding anything for Annabeth with such short notice. I planned to look at one more place yesterday morning, but then I found out Annabeth - even though she's an infant in arms - was required to have a ticket. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, KYLE FIELD? There went her outfit. I dressed her in brown because it blends in nicely with maroon. Go me.

We headed out early so we could see Step Off, which is when the Corps of Cadets and the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band march from the Quad to Kyle Field. I'd only seen this twice - the first time was back in sixth grade and the second time was on the first game of my freshman year. It was still dern hot at 4:30, but Jackson enjoyed it so much. It was totally worth it. Plus, we met up with my friend Allie and her twins and that was so fun! Allie and I have been friends since Kindergarten and we have lots of memories at A&M together. It was a little surreal being there with our kids.

After that we had to figure out Annabeth's ticket situation. I was nearly sick over the prospect of forking over money for her when we didn't even expect to make it past half time AND SHE WASN'T GOING TO TAKE UP A SEAT. Curt kept talking to the scalpers, but I was determined to find someone just giving one away. Sure enough, when we walked up to the ticket booth I saw a man offering a single ticket to another lady. I eavesdropped a little and could tell she needed more than one ticket, so I boldly approached and let the man know we were looking for a single ticket for our precious, darling baby. LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS IN THIS BABY BJORN! God bless that wonderful man because he gave us the ticket. It was a good one too, not that it mattered. I'm kind of embarrassed that I was so bold, but PRAISE GOD! Thank you, kind, kind sir for having mercy on us.

Then it was time for some grub, so we sat on a curb and ate some hamburgers from the Fuddrucker's tent. Annabeth was asleep in the Baby Bjorn while I ate. At this point, we were able to meet up with my BFF from high school, Jen, and her family. This was so fitting because Jen's dad was a huge influence on my love for A&M as a teenager. He was always taking us to games, bless his heart. There's no telling how many brain cells he lost as he was subjected to our discussions of whether we just made eye contact with a yell leader or if Corey Pullig noticed us.

We made it to our seats on the SECOND ROW at the 20 yard line. Awesome! They were singing "The Spirit of Aggieland" as we got seated, which was perfect timing. A few days ago I showed Jackson some Aggie propaganda films on You Tube to get him ready, so he was familiar with the song.

From this point on it was sort of a beating. Annabeth didn't even make it halfway through the first quarter before she was crying uncontrollably. She was so thirsty that she took water from a bottle without hestitation. (Enter mommy guilt.) I left the stands on a mission to find a good place to feed her. I ended up walking through some doors I probably shouldn't have and found an air conditioned hallway and a nice, quiet women's locker room where I could feed her. Maybe we shouldn't have gone in there, but MY 7-MONTH-OLD HAD A TICKET.

After that, Annabeth let me watch about 10 more minutes of the game before she was crying again. Sara took her this time and kept her until half time was over. Jackson was now spazzing out too. He was bored with the game (to be fair, he couldn't really see it) and couldn't be still. They were obviously too young for all of it, but I'm glad we tried. At one point I made him sit in between Curtis and me so that he'd chill out, and he looked at me and said, "You're not my favorite." Well, that was a first! I said, "That's okay, I don't need to be your favorite."

Jackson LOVED half time. He smiled and clapped and just got a big kick out of the whole thing. The band is so neat. As soon as it was over, we jetted. We made a quick stop at Sonic and then got on the road.

Next time Curtis and I will probably just go by ourselves, but the whole experience was great. I'm so glad Sara came with us because just having an extra person eliminated a lot of stress.

Here we are with Allie, Lauren and Blake.



Some members of the Corps getting ready for Step Off.



The canon being driven out.



Lots of marching.



Jackson watching the band approach. About 10 seconds after this we almost got trampled.



Annabeth was a big hit in the Baby Bjorn. She didn't even need a maroon and white outfit.



Mr. Wilson and his Aggie girls, all grown up. Jen, we'll pretend you didn't go to TCU instead.





That's the student section. You have to stand the whole time on that side, but I have to admit it's more fun over there.



This was right before the players came in. It was so exciting.



Some of the players. We were so stinking close!



Sara and Jackson.



Curtis and Annabeth.



Me and my boy.



Aggie Yell Leaders - bromance at its best.





The pilots who did the flyover sat right in front of us. Everyone clapped when they took their seats. I forgot to mention how much Jackson loved the flyover.



This is the Aggie mascot, Reveille. She is the highest ranking member of the Corps of Cadets.





I think I've seen that boy somewhere!





I don't think I need to explain this one.





This guy reminded me of Alice and Wonderland.



Freaky picture.



This guy's shoe fell off.



My favorite part!















Only in a college town.