Friends, Family, and of course...some more Football

I think it's safe to say that football consumes our falls (and this is why you get to see pictures from football games in every post during the fall!), and has for the entirety of our relationship - this is our 9th football season together! Starting with the Buford high school days, friday nights in Tom Riden stadium were the highlight of the week with Ryan in the action, scoring TD's with me on the sidelines chanting "T-D-, we want a touchdown!" with the other cheerleaders. 

It's kinda intense how into football this family is - this family being the new Wood family (Me and Ryan), the Pridemore side of our family, AND the Wood side of our family. But we can't help it - football is in our blood... Ryan's dad played for legend Bear Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide and Ryan played Wide Reciever at Duke (#82) and then on my side, my dad played for Bobby Bowden and the West Virginia Mountaineers, then for the Atlanta Falcons for eight years and then both of my brothers play now - with Matt at Duke (#10!) and TJ at Florida (#45!).  I sure hope our kids get some of those athletic genes...and the full scholarships to college would be nice too! :)

So, often at a Duke or Florida football game, you will see Ryan...or my dad...or even my mom....sitting in the stands watching the game, with an XM radio in their ear listening to play-by-plays from one of the other games, which inevitibly happens to be at the same time...every Saturday.

Sometimes, you'll even look over to see a huddle from two or more of them trying to share the ear buds when something exciting happens...

Aside from football season being fun for us anyways between our own teams and then watching Matt & TJ play, it's also a time of year that we get to see lots of family and friends.  My cousin and her family live about an hour and a half from Durham and have been over for two Duke games this season.  We always have so much fun with them!  They are moving to D.C. this summer, so we especially enjoy our time with them now since we know it's short-lived - it's been so nice having them semi-close by this last year and a half that we've lived here since the rest of our family is five hours away at the closest...and 7 hours from them.

Here's Ryan and I, my parents, and my cousin Andrea, Jimmy, and their kids Alicia & AJ at the Duke vs. Virginia Tech game on 10.3.09


Does Andrea not look like my mother's child sister?  Everyone has always thought that Andrea looks so much like my mom.  She definitely looks more like my mom than her mom (our moms are sisters).

Matt & I took Alicia & AJ some Duke Football t-shirts one day a couple years ago when we visited them in Spring Lake.  After two seasons of wear, they finally outgrew their first Duke t-shirts and had to get new ones. 

Matt #10 & Banks #39 celebrate after a big play

And now, moving on to the big Duke/UNC rivalry game...that turned out to be not such a big game for Duke...

However, we did have fun tailgating with some good friends Adam & Melissa from our Bible study group.  Some people stopped by to ask how our tailgate was able to work and how we could all get along :)  To make things more interesting, Adam played football at UNC in addition to both of them being UNC grads and of course, Ryan played at Duke, so it was definitely an interesting combo for a tailgate, but we did have fun...and lots of good food! 



Some of Ryan's teammates were back in town for the game, so we got to hang out with them for a little while too.  So great to see them!

Adam and Melissa were such good sports that they even sat in the Duke section with us!



I love watching Matt play football - I've never seen someone play with as much heart, determination, and competitiveness as him.  He truly loves the game and worked so hard and overcame so many obstacles to be able to play in college.



Last week, Duke played Georgia Tech at home and we had high hopes for that game as well.  However, it didn't turn out quite the way we wanted it to so I don't have many pictures to post.  We did have a fun crowd for that game though. My parents were here along with my aunt and uncle, my cousin Tina and her fiance Wes and my cousins Andrea, Alicia, & AJ.  After the game, we all came back to our apartment for pizza and to watch TJ play at South Carolina. Ryan's parents were supposed to come for the Tech game as well but the swine flu hit their house...we missed them!

This weekend Duke plays at Miami and Florida plays Florida International at home, so we are waiting on Laura Gowder to get here Friday afternoon and then we are going to have a FUN, relaxing weekend with her...and nowhere to go...and I.CAN'T.WAIT!!!