Sugar Bowl and Utah!!!!!!

So for any of you that know my brother, it may come as no surprise that us Olivers are pretty big Utah fans. This year has led to some phenomenal football and if there was ever a year for us to get season tickets this was definitely it! My dad and Josh bought two season tickets with Josh's friend Chase and his dad. Due to some luck, Delaney and I were also able to go to the two biggest games of the year! TCU and BYU both of which we beat in heroic fashion!!!!! Brian Johnson is the man! Paul Kruger is a champ! And Louie Sakoda is my hero!! Here are lots of pictures from the season!!





















And here it is...what this whole season was leading up to...THE SUGAR BOWL!!!!!!!! Who would have ever guessed that Utah would go undefeated 12-0 and would be on their way to New Orleans to play the Alabama Crimson Tide! And who would have guessed that the Olivers would be on their way to cheer them on! After an exhausting night of buying plane tickets, bowl tickets, and booking hotels...we got everything under control and were officially going! The best part of it was Chase was coming with us but it was a Christmas suprise for him. For two weeks we planned a fake party where we were going to get the game catered and have everyone over, and then on Christmas Chase called telling us he hates us all because of the lie....Bhahahahahaha!!!!!

New Orleans is a beautiful city and so so so so so much fun!! We got in at about 11 o'clock on New Years Eve and there were fireworks going off all over the city! We had difficulty turning the lights on in our rental and Norman got to display his amazing navigation skills....but we made it to the hotel safe and sound about two seconds before they were about to give our room away.






The next day we were able to spend the whole day in New Orleans and we had no plans. We started the morning by walking over to the Riverwalk(?) (I just asked my dad what it was called and he ignored me so that's what I'm going with) and just my luck, the first store we walk into I broke a mardi gras mask and had to pay $40 for it...dang it!





We continued walking down and we ended up running into the tailend of the Alabama pep rally...oops haha but it was still fun! We took pictures with the sugar bowl trophy, got free t-shirts, and watched the kickoff challenge!





Right on the other side of the pep rally was the beginning of the French Quarter and we started making our way down that direction. Chase, Josh, and Norman thought jokes about Bourbon Street were pretty funny. And well...It lived up to its reputation because we were still a few blocks away when we started hearing people shouting inappropriate things and we had to turn around...Strangely, Delaney was the most upset haha not really. Josh and Chase continued jokes about heading down the whole time we were there. They probably did while everyone else was sleeping....We then went to the aquarium (not gonna lie, it may have happened before the French Quarter...I can't remember) and that was a lot of fun! It was a little bit better then the one in Sandy haha. We got to touch sting rays and a shark! And the otters were pretty cool too!







On our way back to the hotel, we ran into our neighbors Dirk and Gentry at the Marriott. They informed us that the Utah team was having a pep rally in an hour so we hurried to the hotel and came back ready to cheer our Utes on with everyone else that came from Utah!! It was so much fun! We ran up to the stage before anything happened and hurried to the side and as the amazingness of the trip continued...we ended up standing right next to where the team walked by to get on stage. I got to see Brian, Paul, Louie, and KYLE right up close and got to hi-5 some of them!! It was so awesome!! The team is amazing!!!!! It was incredible!!









After the rally we went and ate dinner at the silliest restaurant I've ever been to. It seemed like a pretty fancy restuarant, but it was empty so we got all the attention from the waiters...The lettuce wraps were the saltiest things of my life and the excessive use of plastic straws was too funny haha! After dinner, Norman and I went and met our really good friend Tina and her boyfriend Dillon. We walked down to Cafe du Monde to get pretty much the greatest thing in the world...Beignets!! It was so so so so good!!

The next morning we slept in and we slept in pretty late. It was good preparation for the game that night! We went back to Cafe du Monde that morning and stood waiting forever for the delicious beignets, then we went and ate them in this really cool park.








We went back to the hotel and got ready for the game! The superdome is so cool!!! But we got to get worried as we realized just how many more bama fans there were than us. We got to go sit down and guess what?! We had first row seats!! We had no idea and we were in shock! My cute little dad was grinning from ear to ear! He looked like such a little kid! It was so incredible and it did not seem real! The only problem with our seats was that we were surrounded by bama fans....But my dad ended up sitting by some pretty nice ones.















You guys know what happened...31-17! Utes 13-0! The perfect season!










We went back to the Marriott and Chase, Josh, and Norman went on a quest to get as many signatures as they could on their footballs. Norman won with his football covered with signatures! Tina and Dillon came and found us and hung out with us for a bit and that was also fun! We went back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, and headed toward the airport at 3 in the morning haha






It was an incredible trip! With incredible family and friends! I'm so happy I got to go and take part in the greatest Utah season of football! Go Utes! Go Jazz!