National Championship Pregame

Here are the pics from the actual pregame. It was completely electrifying to walk into that stadium and see all the OSU fans there. The OSU side was probably 95% OSU fans. The Florida side was about 35% OSU fans. So there were many more Buckeyes there. All the fans showed up...only the team didn't.

National Championship Pregame 2

More Pictures...




OSU takes the field...


In the picture below, you can see the yellow podium at the bottom. This is were the bald eagle took flight and landed. It was right in front of us....really cool to see in person. That was one of only two times that I have seen a bald eagle that close up in free flight. Probably didn't look like much on TV.


This picture was taken immediately before kickoff. As you already know, the opening kickoff was run back for a touchdown and the entire stadium erupted. It was amazing to see that play out live. Unfortunately those were the last smiles we had the whole game with the exception of Pittman's touchdown in the 2nd quarter. Oh well, we had a great season, and hopefully Tressel comes out an even better coach after this game. Go Buckeyes!!! Hopefully they can make it back to a BCS game next year. It will be tough, but I would love for them to get to the Fiesta Bowl here in sunny Phoenix.

Party Before the Game

This was a huge "pay to get in" party that was going on before the game. There were a lot of these all over Phoenix throughout the weekend. We went to a huge OSU block party on Sunday afternoon in Scottsdale and there was a pep rally downtown at Chase Field (where the Diamondbacks play). There were way more OSU fans here than Florida fans too, which made it great for all the pregame parties. Anyway, these pictures are from the entrance to the outdoor mall called Westgate. This mall is still being built so the stores are not even in it yet. But the main structures are all there and some restaurants. This whole area is being built up and the hockey arena and football stadium are both right next to it. So everything is all walking distance. These pictures show where all the fans were partying, the live bands were, etc. They even had a Varsity Club West for those that know of the Ohio State Varsity Club in Columbus.

National Championship Tailgating

Tailgating!!! It was pretty cool to be tailgating for an OSU game and have it be 75 degrees outside. The weather was perfect.

OSU Pregame

OK, We have tons of pics from the Ohio State game so I'm not gonna post all of them. We had a great time. The pictures below are of us at the house prior to going over to the game. All of the people in the pics are friends that came in from Ohio. Most from Cleveland and also two from Columbus. Our new house is only about 5 minutes from the new stadium so we were able to go there first and only have a short drive to the game. This will also be fun because the Super Bowl is here for Super Bowl 42, in the same stadium.

More House Pics

Here are some more pictures from our house. Our move out date is Saturday, January 20th. I will get out a separate email with our address and new phone number. We are very excited to move in. We have been going over about twice a week to check on things and take car loads of stuff over. I have been cleaning the pool once a week too. We are ready to start using it, but the water is about 45 degrees. The entire kitchen and hallway was the only thing repainted so far. Everything else was left the same. Here are some more pics:

More Pics

Here are a couple more holiday pics. This one is the only positive thing I can think of about not being able to be with family for the holidays....I can eat and act like I am Trevor's age.

Holiday Pics

Here are some more pics from the Holidays.

New Home!

So, we purchased our house this past week. Since we moved here, we have probably looked at about 40 homes. We looked at new spec homes and resale homes too, in all different cities. This house was a great deal. We knew we would put an offer in as soon as we saw it. It was perfect and in a great location. The house was owned by a fighter pilot and his family, so they move for the military every few years. They had just dropped the price $35,000 and we knew they had to move at the end of December. They are moving out of state so we offered them $25,000 less than their new asking price and offered to close by the end of December. So, even though we will have to pay double payments on the house and our rental for about 2 months, we could not pass up the deal on this house. Basically, we bought it for 20% less than what they were asking 2 weeks before we came in. And we had it appraised this week and it is valued at $20,000 more than what we paid.

Anyway, the pictures are below...we can't wait to start moving in. It is 4 bedrooms with 3 full baths. It has 2 floors on one half of the house and a living room and family room that go all the way to the roof on the other half. The yard has a great pool and a walk out patio with a misting system for those 115 degree days. Above the patio in the back is a walk out balcony from the master bedroom upstairs too. The best part of the yard is that it is also private. Even though there are houses around the back, there is no direct line to look into the backyard. So it has some privacy which is very hard to find in homes out here. Can't wait for everyone to come visit.

21 More Days

When we went to the NHL game, the arena is right next to the new Cardinals Stadium. The new stadium is huge and is known to be the most innovative and state of the art stadium in the country. This is where the National Championship game is being held in January that Ohio State is playing at. It is all in a huge growing part of Glendale.

Phoenix Coyotes NHL Game

This was our first experience at an NHL game here in Phoenix. The team is not doing real good, but this was a great game. They won in a shootout after overtime. We had a lot of fun. My manager has season tickets, so he gives us tickets from time to time. His seats are in the corner 3 rows from the ice. We forgot how freezing it is at a hockey game. It was a little different than being at the Lumberjacks games.

Christmas Party - Dec. 9th

These pictures are from Tiffany's friends house. All of these people have moved here in the last year. It is pretty amazing. I don't think we have met anyone outside of work that has been here longer than 2 years.

New Elves

Santa traded in the reindeer this year for dogs.

Tempe Art Fair

These pics are from the Tempe Art Fair near Arizona State University. We went to this on the weekend of Dec. 1st. It was pretty fun, but everything was ridiculously expensive. So we went the cheap route and bought a Christmas ornament.