2008 ACC Champs!

We took the boys to their first Hokie game on Saturday, the ACC Championship game in Tampa. I fully expected it to be an enormous debacle, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. We left on Friday evening after work and got to our hotel around 1030pm. Basic hotel room, but Chase thought that it was the coolest thing. He asked, "where is everyone?" when we got there, possibly expecting a welcoming party. We all crashed, but the boys woke us up bright and early on Saturday am, gameday. We got breakfast at the hotel, got our VT jerseys on and made our way to the stadium for our elaborate tailgate (which consisted of Sonic drivethru food, a few Hokie chairs, a turkey call, and Jenn's trusty camera). Don't worry - we'll be back with our typical tailgate next season. I could tell that Chase knew something big was going to happen; he was fired up, just like his daddy. Everyone we walked by, Chase said to them 'Go Hokies!" We walked into the stadium, Chase on my shoulders and Cole in one of those kangaroo pouches with Jenn. Just as we walked through the gate, 3 jets flew over and Chase and I screamed in excitement. The fun didn't stop when we went on the escalator to get to our seats (this might have been his favorite part of the whole trip). We had great seats, in the end zone on the Hokie side. We saw the Hokie bird and then Enter Sandman came on. For those of you that don't know VT tradition, this is our entrance music - so we all jumped up and down and went nuts as the Hokies took the field. Chase was in awe at how cool the entire situation was, and Cole was soaking it all in. All of the excitement caused Chase to get a nosebleed, but we calmly took care of it, and Chase blew it off to get back into the action. We checked out the pirate ship in the stadium and then met up with Uncle Christen (this was probably Chase's 2nd favorite part). Jenn, true trooper that she is, fed Cole to make sure that he was happy. The Hokies controlled the game from the opening kickoff and the weather was beautiful. We left with about 5 min left in the 4th qtr after Orion Martin scored a defensive td to seal the deal and give us our 3rd ACC title in 5 years. It was a satisfying win and a great day for the boys' first Hokie game. First of many.