Go Big Orange!

Never thought I would ever really say that....

Kyle and I finally made it to a Tennessee football game. We went to the last home game against Vanderbilt. It happened to be pretty cold that night and we had MANY layers on to stay warm.

The experience was nothing like an A&M game. It wasn't necessarily bad or anything, just different. For my Aggie friends, you know the annoying "uncover nazis" at the game? Imagine that type of annoying and add in TTU fan antics and I think that might be what the student section was like that night. No one was really mean, but it wasn't the "Old Army" experience we are used to at games. It was also hard for Kyle to really enjoy the game since it wasn't A&M. I love Tennessee, but it is still weird at times to root for anyone but an A&M team. But I love college football, so I was happy just watching the game. It was also pretty amazing to be inside Neyland Stadium with a seating capacity of over 100,000.

The game wasn't going to great for Tennessee so we left in the 3rd quarter. I am not sure if I will ever get used to any band other than the Aggie Band at halftime, but I do love singing "Rocky Top"!

Power "T" before the game for the football team to run through

Experiencing South Korea

Well...sort of. Our department sponsors the NEST (Next Generation Sports Talent) program and offers a Sports Studies certificate to those from South Korea that come to Knoxville and participate. This year (August through February) we have 14 participants and all are former elite athletes or former Olympians from South Korea.

It is actually pretty amazing to be in a room full of Olympians! While they are here, they learn English and about sports and exercise science in the United States. Each week the NEST participants attended a seminar through exercise science and one through sport management. One week, Lizzy (another PhD student in Sport Mgmt with me) and I did a presentation on the pressures of college athletics in the United States. I focused on academic pressures and Lizzy talked about pressures on the field/court since she played college volleyball. My international sport history class also got involved last fall. We were paired up with one of the South Koreans in order to learn a little more about their culture and for them to learn about ours.

Yeji was a professional swimmer for 4 years in South Korea. One Friday, we went to a local Korean restaurant and I tried Korean food for the first time. I was surprised to find most of it very yummy. However, I did learn that the entree I ordered should be ordered with the "hot stone bowl" next time. The dish was wonderful, but cold. The meat, veggies, everything was cold. If you get it in the hot stone bowl it is hot.

Texas! Part I

Just a few days after we returned from DC, we packed everything up for a week in Texas. The main reason for the trip was a sport management conference in Austin. Since I was presenting and it was in Austin, we decided it would be good for the entire family to go.

We did the "night" driving approach again but we changed it up a bit this time. Instead of leaving early evening, we slept until about 11:30 and left by midnight. This let us rest a little but still drive a good chunk of the trip at night while Taryne and Hayden were sleeping.

The first part of our Texas trip was spent at my aunt's, grandparents and in College Station. We were able to meet our new cousin Collin and our friend's new baby, Landon.

Visiting Family on their ranch

Grandma Milady and Taryne Milady

Grandma Milady, Taryne Milady and Grandpa Clarence

Grandma Milady, Hayden Clemens, Taryne Milady and Grandpa Clarence

Me, Hayden, Taryne, Grandma and Grandpa

College Station

Renovations at Bright

We decided to take lots of pics of Kyle Field since they are about to start a massive, multi-year renovation to add about 20,000 seats.

Aggie Baseball

With the addition of A&M to the SEC, we have been fortunate to see many Aggie sporting events in person this year even though we are no longer in Texas. Aggie baseball played the Tennessee series here in Knoxville this year. Our A&M club joined up with a club from North Carolina and we tailgated before the Saturday (final game in series) game. A&M had already taken the series by winning the Thursday and Friday games. Unfortunately A&M lost the final game to sweep the series, but we all had a great time and met lots of great Aggies.

The food!! Famous Daves

East Tennessee A&M Club and Western Carolina A&M Club

The baseball field has an awesome playground which is great when kids cannot sit still for 3-4 hours!

Busy Weekend

The weekend of Hayden's birthday, Kyle's parents and sister came to visit. I think we managed to drag them all over East Tennessee to see as much as we could in the few days they were here. Over the course of the weekend, watched some Fightin' Texas Aggie Softball (unfortunately we lost the series), went to Cade's Cove in the Smokies, the East TN History Museum and Mast General Store in downtown Knoxville, and a few of the shops in Sevierville. We had one day with a little drizzle and clouds, one day with a light rain and then the last day we had snow.

Head Coach Holly Warlick (Lady Vols Basketball) threw out the first pitch

Hayden got a pic with Smokey

  

The Family

 

Taryne thought she needed to eat the snow of someone's car...

East TN History Museum-Taryne was bored, so we checked out the gift shop

 It was a whirlwind of a weekend!