Back-to-Back Weekends in Indy!

As crazy as it sounds and out of all the cities in the US to host two big events, I spent back to back weekends in Indianapolis!  I actually love this city. Although it was really cold, it is such a great host city for big events.  If you stay at one of the hotels downtown everything is walkable. The first weekend we flew and the second weekend I drove, but once we were checked into our hotels there was no need for a car the entire weekend. Everywhere felt safe and clean. There are a ton of great restaurants and shopping all within a few blocks of each other.  The stadium and convention center are also in the same area.  Most hotels are connected to all of those big attractions through inclosed skywalks so you don't even have to go outside in most cases.  

First up was cheering for our beloved Bulldogs in the National Championship!  We were so happy to have the opportunity to go to the big game and couldn't believe it when they won.  There were touches of the championship all over town and the excitement level by all of the fans was infections. 

We got to go to the ESPN tailgate which was thankfully indoors!  They had all sorts of different activities and stations set up, along with lots of photo backdrop ops!  

There was one area where you could customize tshirts based on your team so we made a family set! 

The game was amazing.  Lucus Oil Stadium reminded me a lot of Mercedes-Benz stadium here in Atlanta and the UGA fans were there in full force.  

It was certainly a little stressful at times, because we have been to plenty of big games against Bama and seen them always somehow make a comeback.  However, when we had the interception and solidified the win it did feel really good to see all of the Alabama fans start leaving before the game was over.  It was finally our turn to celebrate a big win! 

I flew home early on Tuesday morning, jumped right into driving carpool that afternoon and then turned around and drove back to Indy on Friday for my daughters cheer competition.  

Jamfest is a huge national competition with teams from all over the country competing in various divisions.  With competition cheer you compete on Saturday and Sunday and your scores are combined to determine the winners.  

Her team had two great performances each day which was a major win for us after dealing with a lot of injuries and having to add new people to the team at the last minute.  They ended up in 3rd place! 

Cheer is one of those all-in type of sports.  Kids spend 5-6 days a week in the gym preparing, practicing, and training.  Their cheer friends become their best friends and we are lucky because so many of her cheer gym friends are also her school cheer friends, in turn making it one big cheer bestie weekend.  Although they are on different teams they all watch and support one another. 

Even the moms get in on the fun! 

When they aren't competing or watching their friends compete we made our way around the city for some fun.  Dinners with friends, shopping and running into our favorite celebrity cheerleaders.  Anyone watching season 2 of the Netflix series CHEER?  They had a big group of the cheerleaders at one of the pop-up shops in the mall for a meet and greet so of course we stood in line for a picture. 

Then after dinner the girls were doing a little more shopping and saw a few of the cheerleaders walking around the mall out of their uniforms.  They were so excited to ask for another picture and the cheerleaders from the show were all so nice. 

Overall it was a wonderful second weekend in a row in Indy and we're already looking forward to next year's competition there.  

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