BYU vs Tennessee

For Jackson's birthday this year, we took him to Tennessee for the BYU vs. Tennessee football game. We drove into the night Friday then started bright and early on Saturday in the pool. I think this was Jackson's favorite part of the trip. He made a couple new friends at the pool, which I appreciated because then he didn't insist I get in the water with him.

None of us had been to Knoxville before, so we headed downtown to explore and happened upon the BYU alumni association's tailgate party. We also went up in the Sunsphere Tower, which has a great 360 degree view of the city. My parents and Jacob and Nalon also came down for the game so we met them there that afternoon.

We fueled up before the game on pizza and garlic knots.

The walk from downtown Knoxville to the stadium was so beautiful - I love a good riverfront city!

The game was at Neyland Stadium and let me tell you, there's college football and then there's SEC college football. I've never experienced anything like it! The stadium holds something like 90,000 people and it was full, so it was incredibly loud. It was also incredibly hot, but fortunately the sun set quickly. 

In addition to my parents and Jacob and Nalon, we were sitting with Thomas and Madison's friends the Arringtons and their baby Dayton. He did impressively well in such a loud, crazy stadium!

The marching band was incredible! I was super impressed by their formations.

The game was tight the whole time, but with less than a minute left, we were down by 3 and pretty much gave up hope. But then BYU completed something like a 60-yard pass to put us into field goal position and the kicker made it. Overtime! We were shocked and so, so excited. We ended up going into double overtime before ultimately winning it. It was NUTS. So suspenseful, so exciting, and so, so fun. 

After the game, we went down to the loading ramp to wait for the players to come out so we could snap some pictures with our favorite player. 

The game didn't start until 7 pm and then it went into double overtime. Then we had to walk back to the parking garage and it took us like a half an hour to get out of traffic. It was a late night. Jackson hung in there, even though it was waaaay past his bedtime. But within about 7 minutes of being in the car, he was out cold.

We stayed the night there then headed home in the morning. What a fun weekend!