Parents' Weekend!

I'm blogging on the tail end of USC's Parents' Weekend! I had SUCH a good time! My mom and her sister Patricia (my godmother) came down to visit! My dad stayed home for a big Navy football game--oh how I miss it--and his brother and a friend were houseguests. PW had so many activities for parents and their baby gamecocks. My guests were introduced to their first SEC football game, a real treat! They sampled southern foods and and heard many "y'all"'s.

My mom and Aunt Patricia arrived Friday afternoon. It was the first time I saw my family in person since I moved it! As one of my friends put it "I'd be about to pee my pants if I hadn't seen my parents since move-in!" and she was right. I was SO incredibly excited to see them that the more I thought about it, I found myself getting choked up. They came here Friday and we all went to a fab place for dinner called California Dreamin'. They have these croissants with honey drizzled over them and I can't get enough! Then we went shopping. I haven't been to a mall since I before I had moved in, so I picked up a cute "Carolina Girl" T-shirt and browsed.

I fell in love with these little puppies! I found them while we were in the mall and I'm going to snag a pair when I go home! After shopping, we went back to the hotel to get ready for a parents' weekend welcome pool party and I stayed with them at the hotel. The pool party was so much fun! My aunt won't say the name of the mascot (GO GAMECOCKS!) so our mission was to get a photo of her with Cocky! Mission accomplished! It was so nice to stay in a real bed, not a dorm room. The hotel room must have been twice the size of our room.

Here she is with the man of the hour, himself--Cocky the Carolina gamecock!

Here I am with Cocky again, in my fabulous Lilly Florida Shift and Odin Cardigan! Representing LP on campus!

Saturday came around and we got up early. During the morning we hit of Mickey Dee's for breakfast since I love their pancakes. After that we scooted up to the Target close to USC and got a few necessities that I needed to restock from the time I moved in. Not having a car is problematic for trips like that but we had a rental so it was easy! We then headed on over to Devine Street which is an eclectic gathering of stores, including Pink Sorbet, a Lilly store! They were having an ADORABLE print giveaway. If you spent $200 you got a hand painted watercolor print. We went to a few more stores and then came back to the room to drop things off. Then we went back to the hotel to get dressed for the game and then went over to the Parents' tailgate. This was one of the parents' programs they had going on! The food was delish and my mom even tried a gross disgusting boiled peanut. I don't get that southern tradition! We then made the trek over to the stadium and we were in hugely high seats. I gave up my student section to sit in section 502, but I had such a good time with my guests!

At first I didn't love this photo, because I thought I looked like a deer in headlights, but I decided that its great since its all of us on a very fun weekend! I think that both my mom and Aunt Patricia had a great time with me (or hopefully they did...) seeing Columbia and experiencing the South!

xxKatie