First Friday!!!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our long, Labor Day weekend.  We kicked it off Friday in one of our favorite places: CLEMSON!

The evening before the first football game, there is a parade through downtown, complete with cheerleaders, bands and beauty queens.  In lieu of taking the children to a football game (we're not insane), we left work a little early and headed to town for the festivities. Kate has been practicing her cheers for weeks now, and was ready to try them out.

This year was particularly exicting because the first game was, well, kinda big. So big, in fact, that ESPN came to town.

Game Day is not one of those every day things, so it was pretty exciting to see the setup. And get the kids picture in front of the barrier. Yes, Mason has a bracelet on his head. No, I don't know why Mason continues to put things on his head. M has always enjoyed watching College GameDay. I think it must be the colors or something.

Mason was so excited to see it all in person, he slipped under the barrier and took off.  Luckily the guys on the other side were young and laid back. He turned around when they said hello.  Here's Don hoisting him back over.

Kate got her face painted.

And then on to the parade!

And it was just like any good southern parade.  

There was a band (the most important one):

Flags:

And Cheerleaders:

Beauty queens:

Tractors:

Bass Boats (ok, maybe I've never seen that before):

Kayaks (ok, that's not so southern):

Odd placement of cows (thanks to the Future Farmers of America):

Enthralled:

Kate's favorite (OK, it was a toss-up between this and the walking Wendy's Frosty):

And Mason's favorite:

We had a blast. On Saturday, Don and I returned to town for the game. We bought tickets on the street - and paid more than any sane person should.  We tailgated. We had a great time. Oh, and the Tigers won. GO TIGERS!