Final Four 2014

The first time I ever went to the Final Four was in 2002 when my dad was working at Indiana University and they made it to the Final Four in Atlanta. Me and my sister Alexis ran around with 2 other kids of a guy my dad worked with, making commercials, interviewing the players, and even singing IU's fight song on MTV. Those videos are some of our family's favorites - they are hilarious! I've always loved pictures and videos and documenting memories. It was my own video camera that I carted around back then. I've kept it up with pictures, but my videos have DEFINITELY fallen by the wayside. I took a couple of videos at Blaine's track meets, but I need to pick it up. Especially before our babe gets here :)

Anyways, I continued to go to the Final Four with my dad:

           2004 - San Antonio

           2005 - St. Louis

           2006 - Indianapolis

           2007 - Atlanta

           2008 - San Antonio

Each time has had its own funny memories, and after 5 years on the bench, I made an appearance at this year's 2014 Final Four in Dallas. We are only a little over 3 hours north of Dallas, and Alexis and Craig had bought plane tickets months ago because the found an amazing deal. My dad probably wouldn't have gone this year, had all of that not been the case. Plus, this was the first time having "North Texas" host, which was not my favorite location. Everything from the hotels to the concerts to the arena should all be together within walking distance, like it usually is. But this time everything was spread out between Dallas and Arlington and nothing was walking distance. 

We still had a good time together, though. It was a quick trip since Blaine and I had to get back to school on Monday, but we got to come from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Friday night, Blaine and I got to the hotel before Alexis and CJ landed and my dad had already checked in and was at meetings. So we stayed at the same hotel as Kentucky and were welcomed by this lovely sign and this festive Reese's peanut butter cup - a family fave.

We all snuggled into one room and gave Blaine and Craig (aka "CJ," so as not to be confused by my dad) their first little taste of Final Four-ness. I really wanted to see Jason Aldean (as part of the free outdoor concert series that go with the Final Four), but he performed on Friday night and we didn't make it in time. On Saturday, though, we got to see Tim McGraw!! Well, for a little while until it got too rainy and windy and cold. No one was really prepared for the weather except for Dad. But we did have time to go on the ferris wheel and (unfortunately) listen to LL Cool J, play games at the Coke Zero and TBS booths, and Blaine and CJ even signed up for a 2-on-2 tournament at the Powerade Booth to win tickets to the game. We were excited to cheer for them, but then it got rained out. It was such a quick, rainy trip, but still fun. Thats just my excuse for how few pictures I have. The other excuse is because we mostly used CJ's phone for pictures because his is the best ;)

My dad went out to the car and we had to meet him down there, but we got roadblocked in the lobby to make way for Kentucky's team making an entrance.

I like to do all the cheesy little booths and get free stuff when we go to these things, so after we walked in, I said "yes" to the first thing that was offered  - a free photo of ourselves and a free chapstick if we signed a pledge that we would not drink and drive... Easy- been doin that my whole life. So me, Blaine, Alexis, and CJ signed the banner and got our free picture (which I'll have to put up once I get home), but here are our names. I guess Dad couldn't make such a big commitment (oh, just kidding, people)

Waiting in line to win random stuff at the TBS booth by shooting 2 free throws... Little did we know, though, the ball had ZERO grip and was HEAVY. We all tried for it though

Don't know about that form, but he was the ONLY one from our group to win something... What a superstar... Just like my son :)

Again, the trouble with having other people take the picture is that they don't care what it looks like and theres a good chance that they'll miss what we obviously wanted in the picture... But here is us in front of the ferris wheel.

Dad was sitting on our side of the little carriage, until we started to feel a little unstable, so he braced himself between the 2 halves to balance the weight... I'm a little heavier these days... no big deal

View from the top of the ferris wheel... While we were up there, we also saw Kevin Hart and LL Cool J while they were on stage. Not a huge crowd because of the weather

Not a good angle, but it was necessary to capture yet another picture of Dad sleeping that weekend. What a tired boy. Thats while we were sitting in the Powerade bleachers waiting to watch Blaine and CJ dominate on the court.

You can't tell, but Tim McGraw is performing behind him. He's one of our faves. I wish we could have heard him more. I was worried about my baby during LL though because his rapping and bass and "yeah!"s were loud and annoying me, so I'm sure my sweet son didn't enjoy it. 

Tim was much more soothing.

AT&T Stadium - which I always referred to as Cowboy Stadium... Its HUGE... they even have Dallas Cowboy porta-potties on each row of the parking lots

Here's another picture of sleepy Dad 

(I have more similar pictures, but I'll save them for the family calendar)

And you can kind of see my tummy in that picture. Alexis got to feel him kick, which was really exciting for both of us, but it was a little too weird for Dad. First time grandfather...

Sleepy Alexis "watching" Conference and snuggling between the 2 Craigs 

We had to leave on Sunday afternoon, but I included a couple extra pictures from CJ's phone of what they did without us... including eating steak at Cattleman's Steakhouse... Thats right up my ally :(

UCONN won... men and women... again... boring...

Fun story though: last time that happened (in 2004), Alexis and I were sitting in our seats watching the National Championship and Dad was seating somewhere else with work people. He had a cell phone, but that was before we ever had one. Anyways, I got really sick and spent the first half in the bathroom. Alexis would come back periodically to check on me and give me the score updates. Eventually she used the calling card number (which we all memorized) to call Dad. So at halftime, he came over to pick us up and we left. He had to half carry me out of the arena and on the way we passed someone he worked with. We all joke because it probably looked like he was escorting some drunk college girl to the car. The other joke about that walk to the car was that I felt horrible and Alexis took a picture of Dad dragging me to the car, so I got mad at her insensitivity. So the next day at the airport, I asked to see the picture because she said it was so funny... but she DELETED it! I guess since I got mad at it the night before... 

Oh Final Four... Fun times. Thanks Dad. Can't wait to take our little boy :)