Friday, April 18, 2014

Road to the Elite Eight!

The best part about this whole journey was to watch the crazy amount of hours my husband puts into his job pay off and being able to be a part of it. I am so thankful we were able to travel with the team and watch history be made. Dayton loves their basketball team and supported them so much! Flyer fans took over Memphis, even ESPN was reporting how it would be a home game for Dayton because of the fans.

The first night we arrived we got on the bus and had a police escort to the hotel. It was crazy! There were two cars and at least 10 motorcycles. They escorted us everywhere we went. Dinner the first night was about 5 blocks from our hotel and we had an escort, the arena were the games where held was less than a half of a mile and we had an escort.

Memphis was a great place to be, warmer weather and plenty of stuff to do right around our hotel.

John Tomas loved the ducks at the Peabody! Loved! Every morning at 11 a red carpet would be rolled out and the ducks would get off the elevator walk the red carpet and get in the fountain. The entire process would take maybe a minute and there would be around 300 people watching. The first day I stayed and let him watch the ducks until 12:30 he thought it was great:)

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One of the restaurants had goats running around outside:)

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A bakery in Dayton sent good luck cookies to Buffalo and Memphis before all the games. It is the same bakery that made John Thomas’ birthday cake. His face says it all – SO GOOD!

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Before the Dayton Stanford game. i had to wake John Thomas up from his nap and he was not happy about being at the game. HA. One day he will appreciate it more:)  089

He requested the same picture to be made:) and proceeded to eat popcorn like a dog (his words)

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WE WON! On to the Elite Eight. Dayton had not been to the Elite Eight in 30 Years! Lots of celebrating!!

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We were waiting for Tommy in the back after the game and I thought this was an appropriate picture. Tommy coached at FL for several years and one of our best friends is an assistant there now. I sent it to our FL friends too. 103

John Thomas had a buddy on this trip. The academic advisor for the basketball team has a little girl, Kennedy, JTs same age so they had a blast together. We spent one rainy day at the children’s museum. They loved it.

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I love when he actually request pictures with me. I am always the one requesting which 95% of the time means he doesn’t look at the camera. But when he ask he will tell me to look at the camera and say cheese:) so this blurry, bad lighting picture makes me happy.

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Before the Florida game

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One of my best friends, Stephanie, came from Arkansas to cheer on the Flyers! On Wednesday Stephanie and Brad came down, watched our game on Thursday. Friday she drives back, drops off her husband and gets her 16 year old son that wanted to come for the Saturday game. What a good mom and friend!

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Unfortunately we lost but the guys played a great game and everyone was so proud! After the game you would have never guessed we lost because all the fans were still cheering for the guys. It was a special moment. So proud of the team.

I think this sums up how we all felt by the end:)

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