2015 World Series Ticker Parade

The World Series Parade. In Kansas City. Wasn't. Going. To. Miss. It. For. The. World. Nor were the kids. At 1:00 am, Sunday night--check that, Monday morning--I sent Kaden's teacher an email stating that he wouldn't be in school on Tuesday, we were headed to the parade. She had emailed back stating not to worry about it one bit and that she wish she could go…

A few hours later, the canceled school & not just our school district, the whole city was shutting down. At first news outlets were estimating 300k people would attend the parade, in the end they reported that well over 800k people came to celebrate. 

I won't lie. I was worried, wasn't sure what to expect or what we were getting into but we had a plan and more importantly, we had 4 adults to three kids. We decided that we would leave Janet's house at 8:30 and head down---parade wasn't going to start until noon but we knew we needed to be early if the boys wanted any chance of seeing some of their favorite players. 

Traffic wasn't too bad getting down there. The plan was to exit at West Pennway and head a little north into a residential neighborhood that we had once parked at during the St. Patrick's Day parade so many years ago---as we pulled off the exit fans were already parking under the bridges in grass or rock, it was tempting but exiting would have been impossible. We kept going. We found a quiet street and called it good. 

We had a little bit of a walk ahead of us but we got to see a few neat places along the way. The newest edition to our downtown area--Kauffman Performing Center of Arts, the boys were so excited--can't you tell. 

We lucked out when we finally rolled up to Grand Street. The UMB bank had just closed it's doors for the day & the rent a fences were just brought out and a whole line of front row spots opened up. We managed to snag a spot just big enough for all three boys to be able to see the entire parade---luck was on our side. Now we just had 3 hours to kill----what were we going to do for 3 hours?!?

We played a number of games of Uno. Colton started off winning the first game and claimed he wins all the time and from that moment on the luck shifted to Logan and he came out the big winner---it of course had nothing to do with Grandma Sara helping him! We even made friends with a family that was standing next to us and Delaney joined in on the intense game of Uno. 

Before they closed down the street completely and stopped allowing fans to cross to the other side, I jumped out and snapped a few pictures of the boys and their signs. We added to our collection with a THANK YOU to our Boys in Blue---this parade and celebration meant so much to this city! 

These pictures bring the biggest smile to my face. I love that my mom was able to jump in the car and join us at the parade. Justin had to work and was sad he was going to be missing the parade but he insisted that I still take the boys. A celebration like this hasn't happened in 30 years for our city and it was long overdue. We started out that morning with lots of open space, we had enough room to sit and spread out but as the noon hour approached, our space shrunk but we still managed to hold our own and not give up our front row spot. Even if the teenage girls and their moms behind us were plotting getting in front of our boys--they really should have done a better job of keeping their plan quiet. 

Within the sea of blue we still managed to see Jason and Sophie. They were actually just on the other side of 18th street and came down to say hello. I snapped this on their way out, wish I would have gotten one from the front.

We tried to limit what we took with us to the parade but there was no way we could get away from taking a few sandwiches and snacks. And it was a good thing we had food, the boys got hungry and thirsty quickly---the suckers really came through. 

And we had electronics to pass the time too---iPhone, 3DS, iPads.

Logan I guess was getting a little impatient and figured that a rally hat might get things started a little quicker. 

We were about 30 minutes out from the start of the parade so we decided to take a selfie---the ultimate #royalsocial. See, we were now packed in like sardines. 

Logan wanted a turn with the camera and took this wonderful picture. 

Finally the parade started. Kicked of by no other than Slugger, one of the highlights for the boys in the parade and one of the better pictures I got. 

As Cain rode by Kaden held up his sign for him to see and I think by the looks of this picture, he liked what he saw! & I think if you look a little closer he is winking and saying "I love you, Kayla!" Wait---did I just say that out loud!?!?

& we are all just keeping our fingers crossed that Alex will remain a Royal for life, it will be a sad day in KC to see him go if he decides not to resign with us. He has meant so much to the city and our baseball club, he just won't look the same in a uniform outside of the Royals. 

Not too mention, it was good that they had all the players names and numbers on the trucks, although we all know who Alex is & I could name pretty much everyone of the players, not everyone probably could because they look so different outside of their uniform. 

The Zobrist family. The newest family that all of KC is in love with. He was such a great midseason add to our team & another player that we are just crossing our fingers that the Royals are able to get a deal done with him as well. I mean, they had a baby girl only days after this parade and gave her ROYAL as a middle name, like I said, love this family. 

As Wade Davis drove by his dad was filming the parade & we held up our "Wader Check Please" sign and they LOVED it. Even got a wave from the Wader himself! 

And then after each of the players rode by as crazy fans screamed their names and yelled Thank You, the final truck appeared. & on top, the World Series trophy. It looked so good riding on top of the truck with Ned Yost, back in the city it belonged in. 

The parade was relatively short. I thought there might be more confetti but the excitement, the love that a city showed to our Boys in Blue was just amazing. As soon as the parade passed by us we started our walk back to our car. We were hoping that since we weren't headed down to Union Station that we may be able to bypass a lot of the traffic and possibly even make it home in time for the rally. & it worked--we saw the entire rally from the comfort of our couch. Somehow we managed to avoid the massive 3 hour standstill after the rally---but if you ask anyone who was stuck in that 3 hour standstill, they wouldn't change a thing. They were part of an epic celebration. 

On the way out, I captured a few more pictures. And the smiles tell me that all the chaos was so worth it. I managed to cut off my mom's face but I can only imagine that her smile was as big as Kaden's and Logan's. 

So many memories were made on this day for our city, for me, for the boys, for our family. It literally was the day the world turned blue, ROYAL blue and our boys were part of it. To some extent, it still doesn't seem real---thankfully we have all these pictures, stories and DVR to re-watch the magical season. To re-watch a team that NEVER gave up, that kept fighting until the last out was recorded. A team that defied odds and proved so many nay-sayers wrong. It wasn't a FLUKE that our Boys in Blue won the World Series this year, they had some unfinished business to take care of after last year and couldn't imagine or accept anything less than coming out on top and then celebrating their victory with over 800,000 of their biggest fans. 

And to think, they THANKED us as they rode down Grand street with the pennants they held up and the shirt they wore but we are the ones that will be FOREVER thankful for what they brought to this city---they put Kansas City on the map again. Thanks for the memories---we will never forget.