Loveliest Village

On Friday night, Jake and I had our first night away from THREE girls! THANK YOU, GRAMMY, for babysitting. We joined Andy and Emily at her family's fantastic lake house, and we had a FABULOUS time with such precious friends. We enjoy them so tremendously, and we realized that the last time we were away overnight together was our NYC trip... where we also spent some time with Andy and Em! So they are evidently our getaway friends. Sadly, we totally forgot to get any pics, which is particularly unfortunate as Em is fantastically beautiful at 29-week pregnant! Thanks again y'all!

We drove into Auburn on Saturday with the rest of the Auburn Family, and we joined a big group of friends at the Goldsmith tailgate. This group was also all together in May when we were all in Michelle's wedding! The only difference is the little boy in Beth's tummy!

Matt, Jake, and Jay- sweet husbands!
Bella Grace (big sis-to-be) is beyond delightful and was practicing "Touchdown Auburn!"
Holly, Alex, and sweet children were kind enough to brave the crowds and come over to campus- it was wonderful seeing dear friends and finally meeting Jay!
We had no tickets, and the going rate was between $200-250 each. Jake spent a lot of time doing this...
but we still ended up watching the first half at a tailgate (that is, after buying one ticket at $75, and selling it for $140- I'm married to quite the wheeler and dealer, it appears).
Then at halftime, we walked over to the stadium, and Jake asked this couple leaving the game (I know, they had to be nuts) if we could use their tickets to try to get back in. They assured us we would have no luck and gave them to us anyways.

I was confident we would have no luck as well.

But Jake's persistence and a sneaky $20 landed a gate lady some pocket change and Jake and I into Jordan-Hare stadium!!!! Just in time for the beginning of the second half and this slice of heaven on earth...
There are only a few things in life that are better than experiencing a night and game like that.
Thanks to this guy and the rest of the the Auburn team...
we went to Toomers afterwards, where we found these folks we're related to...
and met up with sweet Michelle and her husband Matt before returning to the Goldsmith tailgate for their famous Auburn/Georgia post-game soup!
This scene is so precious!!!!! WAR EAGLE!!!!