War Eagle

This past weekend, the whole family (minus Adam) headed to Auburn University to surprise Mitchell at Founder's Weekend/A-Day. He knew my parents were coming, but had no idea Jeff or I had been planning to also attend for months.

After picking Jeff up from the airport on Friday afternoon, we made the quick drive to Auburn (seriously, it was less than 2 hours). We were brainstorming various ways to surprise him, most of them involving reenacting a scene from Dumb and Dumber, but decided the best way would be to Tweet a picture of us outside the restaurant where he thought he was meeting mom and dad.

Shockingly, he was being a good driver and didn't actually check his tweets, so we hid behind the bar and jumped out when he walked in. As can be expected, he didn't look excited (but we could tell he was on the inside!). After a welcome drink at the bar and quick tour of the campus, we headed to Amsterdam Cafe for dinner. I highly recommend the Santiago Salsa, if you ever go.

After dinner, we made three pit stops for three different kinds of booze - typical. Liquor store for (you guessed it!) liquor; gas station for beer, and Publix for FRANZ! Yes, of course I had to purchase a box of Franzia to relive my glory days of college.

We got the grand tour of the Theta Chi house - where Mitchell will be living next year - and let me just say it's beyond absurd. Not only do they have an industrial kitchen, they have a cook! We were all kind of tired, but decided we had to go to at least one bar before we called it a night. Our tour guide decided on Moe's where their signature drink is a Bushwhacker - a Frosty mixed with some sort of brown liquor - not my jam. I decided to treat the fam to a round of shots (because that's the kind of family we are) and bought myself a vodka drink. Well, I just about fainted when my total was $16. Are you kidding me?! I'm moving there.

The next morning we had to be at the frat house at 9:30am for Breakfast Club, which I have since learned is actually just a Booze Fest with powdered donuts.

Don't we look so fresh at 9am?

The fam (We missed you, Adam!)

Bloody Mary party

Another reason we were there is because it was the annual A-Day Spring Football Game. Jordan-Hare Stadium is within walking distance of the frat house (super convenient) and the weather was beautiful (just a little windy), so it was nice to be outside all day. (Except for the 30 min I stood at the concession line to buy nachos.)

Moments like this I wish I went to a big school. Check out the turnout for a SPRING game.

After the game, we headed to Toomer's Corner for the last roll. (If you're not familiar with the poisoning of Toomer's Corner, crawl out of your rock and read about it here.) I didn't even try to act like it meant a lot to me, because why would it? However, it was sad seeing all of the lifetime fans who were clearly super bummed.

Ready to roll! (Did you see what I just did there?) 

Here's a shot taken from above. While there were definitely tons of people, it never felt overwhelming. Actually... the trees are being taken down as we speak.

In true Reaves fashion, we headed straight for the closest bar - which happened to be Sky Bar. Again, drinks so cheap I could faint. We strategically positioned ourselves right at the entrance, so we spent a good hour playing 'Is their fake going to work?' My favorite was a girl who clearly looked 17, her ID was denied and her mom shrugged at her and went in the bar without her. (Kudos to Jeff for calling this one when she was still in the back of the line.)

There were still festivities happening at the frat house, so after what seemed like a 4 hour walk back to the house I experience my first crawfish boil. All I can say is I would starve if I had to work that hard for every meal. I finally gave up and ate a Bubba Burger.

I don't know who Mitchell thinks he is, but he doesn't have a rolling cooler, so Jeff had to make do with an ice bag.

One can only guess how this ended...

At this point, I decided to turn the Theta Chi stage until my own personal open mic night. Lucky them!

After somehow surviving Saturday without any hangovers (probably had something to do with the late night stops at both Taco Bell and Wendy's), the boys played golf on Sunday morning while mom and I lounged around. Then it was time for one last meal with Mitchell before we headed home and I got to see these two. Aren't they the cutest??

I could have gone to bed at 5pm and been perfectly happy, but Adam and Jeff hadn't hung out at all so we grilled out on the back porch with some jalapeno poppers and beer-butt chicken.

It was such a fun weekend with the family, and I'm just bummed Adam couldn't have joined us (one guess... baseball, of course!). We're already looking forward to our visit in October when Auburn plays Western Carolina (oh yeah, you read that right) for their Homecoming Game. Let the countdown begin!