Blues Parade

I wouldn't consider myself a hockey fan. I watch occasionally with Ben, especially when Kara was a baby, because she loved to stare at the tv when he was watching hockey. I watched a lot more than usual this year, because the Blues got into the playoffs, and everyone wanted to watch together. Of course Ben couldn't miss a single game. The girls even wanted to watch and follow the team. That being said, I'm still not sure why the girls and I agreed to go to the celebration parade when they won the Stanley Cup. I think they had a different idea of the type of parade they were in for. 

It was kind of a wet, dreary morning, but we got up early and headed downtown with high spirits.

Everyone except for me got new t shirts. They were kind of hard to find in all the Stanley Cup fervor. 

Evie decided she was bored pretty quickly. That was unfortunate as we ended up standing around for 2 hours waiting, lol. She also got hungry, and ate all the extra snacks from my purse, which did not endear her to her sisters when they started to get hungry. Ben's co-worker Patrick caught a ride with us. He didn't complain about the lack of snacks. 
We met a couple that just flew into St Louis, and were staying at the hotel across the street from us. Their uber had to drop them off blocks away, and they fought their way through the crowd with all their luggage, just to be stopped across the street, and not allowed over until after the parade. They were pretty good humored about the whole thing. 

They actually did their best to keep busy and happy at the beginning. 

A couple times, a band would march by, and we thought it was stating, but then nothing else happened for another 15-20 minutes. 

It was pretty exciting for us all when the vehicles started rolling by.

I ended up with around 60 pictures just of John Hamm. Strange. 

This guy got bored and climbed the street sign. Kara was very concerned for his safety. 

I was more concerned for this girl. She got right up there. 

Then this man in his Blues jammies shimmied on up the traffic light. 

Security took him down, and that gave us all a show to watch for a couple minutes. 

Finally, we saw the players. Because we were at the end of the parade route, several of them were hammered by the time they got to us. 

Unfortunately by then, the girls didn't care, and were unwilling to even try to enjoy themselves anymore. Honestly, THEY COULD HAVE STARVED TO DEATH! What kind of mother am I anyway? 

The rest of the crowd enjoyed themselves, though! 

Beer was poured on everyone and anyone. 

The other perk of being at the end of the route, was that all the payers just hung around once they got to the end and had loads of fun together and with their fans. 

I thought it was pretty neat to see the Stanley Cup up close. The girls didn't care, and wouldn't reach out to touch it or anything. I kind of didn't want them touching it anyway...

MVP. O'Reily's speech was the highlight for Ben. I believe he took video of it. Too bad we stood in the streets for hours to get to it. 

I'm sort of glad we went. It sure was memorable. It took forever to get out of the parking garage, and I was able to take the kids down to a nearby hotel for several bathroom breaks while we were stuck in the line of cars trying to leave. They were angels, and didn't complain. Just kidding, that did not happen.