The Countdown....

Linking this to an older post for Kelly's Korner's Show us Your Life "Favorite Teams"...

It's official....Summer is coming to a close around here. But, it's not seen in cooler temperatures, or school buses, or shorter days...Nope, in our family, the seasons are marked something like this:

Football season, Christmas, & Beach season...

Christmas time is my most favorite time of the year, so of course it gets it's own "season"...and once March gets here, we're all ready for the beach...our family spends a lot of time in the sun and in the water (be it the pool, on the beach, or at the river) all season from March until September... but by mid-August, these boys around here are thinking of only ONE thing... Florida football. The countdown begins and we all wait anxiously for the first game of the season.
When we found out that Annabelle was a girl, one of the first things her Daddy bought her was some Gator apparel and her UF Cheerleader doll, whom we named "Georgia." We still say that never has Georgia looked so good than dressed in orange & blue...ha... Annabelle was also gifted many cute Gator "things" from sweet family and friends, but they're all still too big for her...., so, a couple weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to go up to the stadium and see if the Gator sport shop was open so we could get her ready for football season. When we got to there, the Gator Shop was closed, but we decided since we were already there to walk around...

We took Miss Belle on her first trip to the stadium (she's already been on campus a few months ago...Daddy was quite proud to show his girl his alma mater)

DW & Belle on UF campus, in front of the College of Business

On that day's tour of the stadium, Devin showed her the gate that we go in for the games,

and we even took her up to the seats that four generations of her family before her have enjoyed the games in.

Football has rich traditions and deep roots in the south, but in DW's family as well... I love that... I love that Belle's great-great grandfather, her great-grandaddy, her Pappy, and her Daddy have all sat in those very seats to watch the Gators play.

DW doesn't miss a game. (He missed the first game he's missed since he was like 12 years old or something crazy like that, last year for my cousin Stephanie's wedding... the Gators LOST and so it's STILL a sore subject... that's LOVE, let me tell you, for him to miss a game! When we started dating, and getting serious, I knew he REALLY loved me when he told me that he "loved me more than the Gators"... ha... but, when he proposed he made sure to let me know that our wedding could not be during football season!).... The guys in this family are serious about some football... I love watching the games with them...and although I wouldn't want to go to all of them, it's fun for me to go to some of them...

On her first trip to the stadium, we took Belle to the tunnel where the Gators come out of the locker room,
and showed her all the National Championships that they've won....(we're certainly hoping for another one this year!)....

On our way out of the stadium, we stopped by the Bull Gator statue, where DW showed Belle her Great-Great Grandfather's name on the side.....

While taking these pictures, we couldn't believe that Annabelle didn't have her orange and blue on. That inspired a trip right then to the mall to Gator Mania... that's where we found little miss her adorable cheerleader uniform..... which of course, inspired a photo shoot that very afternoon at our house...

(the pics from yesterday's Wordless Wednesday are from that)...

After seeing how cute she was in the uniform, we had to take her back to Florida Field for pics in her new outfit!!!

We went back to the stadium later that week....when we got to there it had just finished raining, and there was a rainbow that arched right over the "This is Gator Country" on the wall... is this not the neatest?!?!?

We took Belle on the field again, and in these pics she is sitting right where the field goal post goes... I told her she was walking right where Timmy Tebow stands.... she got REAL excited... ha! :)

With Daddy on the field...

And while we were taking pictures, I heard, "Hey Annie!"--- we looked up and a friend I went to school with was running at the stadium and saw us come in and offered to take a picture of all of us... how sweet of her!!

That evening, I know, was fun for DW...we got in the truck to come home and he looked at me with the biggest smile and said he was "ready for some football!"... to which I wanted to start singing some Hank, Jr., but for the sake of my pride, I restrained...

9 days until the season starts---and we're all three ready & waiting....

~amw~