Panthers Training Camp

When we first moved here and went to Choral Festival for the first time, we discovered that the Carolina Panthers training camp is held at Wofford College in Spartanburg.  With Josiah and Jacob's new obsession with football, we thought this would be a fun opportunity to get to go see training camp since it's all free and open to the public!  We decided to go for the big Back to Camp extravaganza - it was opening practice and so they had lots of extra fun things for the spectators.

 All Callie cared about was seeing some cheerleaders - so she was thrilled to see one (and hold her pom pom!) at the entrance!! (Had I known, I would have asked Miss Cheerleader to hold her pom pom a little...ahem...higher. I didn't realize until later when I was looking at the picture!)

 Signing the fan wall

 The mascot (am sure he has a name but I have no clue)

 They had this AWESOME face painting tent sent up where it was airbrushing - so the designs were super amazing and it took no time at all.  The coolest!!

 Isn't that the coolest face painting ever?

Bojangles was there with some cornhole games and free $1 giftcards, music playing, free Krispy Kreme donuts, Panthers backpacks - it was a lot of fun.

We headed into the stadium to see practice 

 It was fun for the boys to get to see them practice!  And do stretches and warm ups and exercises just like they have to do. That it's not all glitz and glamour like you see on TV - it takes a lot of practice and hard work.  AND that even the stars on the team have to practice!!

Some players stuck around and signed autographs afterwards...the boys had high hopes but had no idea how many people would be there!

 Jacob got one - DJ Moore #25!  :)

 And THEN....Cam Newton came over to sign!!!

This was as close as he was to the boys...but he didn't sign their balls.  The boys were very disappointed...but we talked about how lucky they were to be able to be there and see them and see the players up close...that most people only ever see them on TV...that helped put it in perspective for them.  It was a really fun day trip for sure and Josiah is already asking when we can go back!