Bienvenido a 2013... Bienvenido a Miami

The start of 2013 was a little rough for Team D... and for Team ND.

On the home front, both Liam and Joergen brought in the new year with what we thought was some kind of stomach bug, but turned out to be a seemingly never-ending GI infection.  Joergen had it, or some version of it, ever since the beginning of December, and Liam joined the party in January.  We will leave out details, mainly because we are doing everything we can to forget that chapter of our lives, but let's just say it was awful. For everyone.  And I would especially like to take a moment to thank Miss (St.) Doreen, the most amazing caregiver ever, who continued to watch our kids despite their, ahem, messy illness.  She truly loves our boys as if they were her own!  And let us all thank the good Lord for that, because one would have to in order to have dealt with that...

... and to have kept the boys overnight at her house for not one, but two nights in the midst of it all!

After ND earned their spot in the National Championship, Dad and I joked that we were "GOING TO MIAMI!!"  We didn't actually mean it!  But then we started looking at flights... and hotels... and talking to all our old roommates and friends... and suddenly... we were "GOING TO MIAMI!!"  The deal was sealed when Miss Doreen agreed to keep our boys while we were gone.  Liam and Joergen were so excited for their sleepover at her house that they didn't even ask us where we were going!

We dropped them off at Doreen's on Sunday morning, drove to Atlantic City, flew to West Palm Beach, rented a car, and finally arrived in South Beach on Sunday night.  It all seemed so surreal!

We got there just in time to check into our hotel, change clothing, and run off to meet friends for dinner.  I was so excited to reunite with all my old roommies!  We hadn't been together as a group since before any of us had kids, and who knew it would take ND being in the National Championship to get us back together?!

Welsh Girls!

We met for dinner at Hakkasan  in the Fontainebleau Hotel, which was also incidentally where the Alabama football team was staying.  After an amazing meal, we ditched the sea of red and white and headed down-beach to friendlier territories.  Ocean Drive was definitely the place to be-- crawling with ND fans and even some familiar faces.  We loved every minute and even found an Irish pub calling our name.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early, hit up a diner for breakfast, and went straight to the beach.  Heaven!

The lots opened for tailgating around 1 pm, and we didn't waste a second getting there.  No sooner did we park and locate our home-base tailgate in the VIP lot (thank you, CJ!) when guess who walked right past us... Brady Quinn!  I ran after him like a teenage girl trying to snap a picture.

We couldn't believe how close we were to the stadium!  It was a gorgeous warm day and an incredible college reunion.

Heater, Carolyn, and me

The view from our tailgate-- almost game time!

The atmosphere at the stadium was truly indescribable, and we both just felt so privileged to be there for the experience.  I think we both got a little emotional at the first sight of the field.

It was all incredible... that is, until the game started!  But hey!  Look who we found at halftime!  Nick Creten!

Unfortunately, not even running into long-lost friends could make that game more palatable.  Now, if this game were decided on by who had the better band, or who had the most fans in attendance, or who had the best tailgating, ND totally won.  In reality, though, we were subjected to an embarrassing number of these:

.... leaving us with an awful lot of this....

Sigh.

We will say, though, that Alabama was nothing if not classy and kind to us as fans, although I would be okay to go through the rest of my life never again hearing "Roll Tide!"

After the game, we reconvened at the Knott tailgate to say goodbye to all of our dear friends, hoping that there is another National Championship sometime in the future to bring us all back together again.  Because despite the outcome of the game, it was still totally worth it.