CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Shane and I were so super excited to head out to Pasadena for the National Championship game! Anyone who knows us knows how much we love Bama football games. To be able to make the trip out was such a blessing. HC was with Nana and Pappy so we were strictly fun zone with no kiddo upkeep. Very nice! We traveled all day on Wednesday, because naturally your trip should be Birmingham to Charlotte, NC to Minneapolis, MN to LA. Thankfully things went smoothly and we arrived only a few minutes late at LA. After getting our luggage, car and checking into the hotel we made our way to In and Out Burger. It was highly recommended. It was yummy! After that, being the party animals that we are we went back to our room and went to bed. After all Thursday was a BIG day.

We didn't sleep so well that night with all the anticipation. We got up and got ready to head over to the Rose Bowl. The weather was perfect. We arrived around 9:30 and got parked. We quickly found our good buddies The Cornelius family (Wayne & Tanya) and went over to tailgate with them.

After some time hanging out we headed out to check everything out. We ran into some cool dudes. They were Florida fans (albeit a little gung-ho) that had booked their trip to Pasadena before they were beaten by the Tide in ATL. I loved their sportsmanship and their shirts. (If you can't read them they say: If you can't beat em, join em. Roll Tide!)

We also saw some other Florida fans with a UF jersey on with "Roll Tide" on the back of it but we didn't get a picture of them. I was super impressed by their loyalty to the SEC. I'm pretty sure we would have never done something like that.

We then found our way to the famous Rose Bowl sign for some photos.

We hung out with some friends at the ESPN tailgate where we were able to get our picture made with the championship trophy. You can see that picture here. We had tickets to an Alumni tailgate. That is a long story but we finally found the location of it and had some lunch/dinner and had a mini-pep rally with the Million Dollar Band and the cheerleaders & Big Al. After that it was finally time to head into the stadium. Of course I had to stop by the bathroom before heading to our seats. I got in line and realized my good friend Katie was right in front of me. We had been trying to hook up all day. Thank goodness for the ladies room!

Since there was a huge line to get to our seats (because the stadium is so old and hard to navigate) Shane decided to stop by the little boys room too. While I waited I got to see this guy.

We finally made it to our seats! It was awesome!

Here comes the Tide!!!

After a crazy first quarter I quickly pulled out my lucky scarf and put it on. We soon scored our first touchdown. Time for some celebrating!

We got caught up in the game and didn't get any other pictures until a victory was in hand. It was nuts in there! We yelled and screamed (so much we couldn't talk well the next day/ or two or three).

We hung around for quite a while after the game. It takes so long to get everyone out of there because of how the stadium is designed plus we just didn't want to leave. It didn't seem real and we were there! We hung around so long we got to watch Saban's press conference on the screen.

It really was amazing to be at the National Championship game and have your team win it all! We are so blessed to be able to make the trip and we are very thankful for that. After the game, being the party animals that we are, we met up with Wayne & Tanya (Cornelius) and a couple of their friends for some food at Denny's. It was greasy and good! By then we were exhausted so we headed to the room for some sleep. (Shane watched part of the game again before bed because it was replaying on ESPN).

Friday we had a fun day of sightseeing. We met up with Wayne & Tanya on Hollywood Blvd. Of course we had to take a picture with our boy Snoop at Madam Tussouds.

We then boarded a open air van to check out the sights. It was the Bama Bus because it was all Bama fans on the bus with us. It pretty much drove us all over town to check out the sights. Here we are ready to hit the road.

We got to see lots of celebrity homes but I think this was Shane's favorite thing. Big guy in a little car, a la Chris Farley. We also got a kick out of the multi-million dollar home with the el-cheapo "Beware of Dog" sign you get at Wal-Mart. You know the one, black with white and orange writing. Somehow we didn't get a picture of that.

We never got a great picture of the Hollywood sign but we did get to see it.

After we got of the van we scarfed down some food and made a mad dash across town to try and make it to the filming of the Jay Leno Show. We made it and got to see Jay, Brian Williams and Ross the Intern. It was super fun but you weren't allow to take any pictures. We got to see the episode and you can't see us unless you know when and where I held my arm up. Oh well, it was fun anyways. After that we dropped Wayne & Tanya off at their car so we could go get changed and head to our dinner reservations. Koi came highly recommended so we took everyones advice. We LOVED it! The sushi was yummo and the atmosphere was awesome.

It really was an amazing trip. We crammed so much into a short amount of time but it was so worth it. Our flights home were a little crazy. Our first flight missed the runway and had to pull back up and try our landing for a second time. Round two was successful!!! Then we got to Dallas and they oversold the flight. You know when you walk up to the desk and they say, "this is the Millers", you are in trouble. Thankfully some dude didn't show up and another guy took the later flight so were able to get on the flight and get home to see Hannah Claire! What a great way to start out the new year!