GO HAWKS!!
Katie and Justin had a SuperBowl Party and it was so exciting because we actually won the Super Bowl (48)!!
Even before the game, the City was in an uproar, then after the win, it was even worse, then the City had to prepare for the Superbowl parade. The Super Bowl parade was on a weekday during the day which meant if we decided to go we would have to pull the girls out of school for it. While I was super excited that the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, I wasn't sure it was COOL enough for my girls to miss a day of school over it. The night before and the day of, it was all Celine could talk about, how she wanted to go to the parade "and all her friends at school were going", blah blah. It was the night before the parade and Daddy was at work all day and I had already told the girls that we weren't going to the parade. Number 1, because I didn't want them to miss school and Number 2, because I knew it was going to be A NIGHTMARE downtown and the thought of it being cold with three kids, didn't make my decision any easier. BUT, again, Daddy came home from work and told the girls to go clean their room (so we could talk) and they left the room and he talked me into keeping the girls home from school, so we could go to the parade.......something like......"this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, they could never win the superbowl again, it took them 40+ years this time, blah blah". Because we weren't SUPER DIE hard fans, we didn't wake up at the crack of dawn or spend the night downtown like some fans did. That morning I had to call the girls school and leave a message on the attendance machine why the girls weren't going to be there that day and I didn't even bother lying and basically said, we were going to the parade! Pretty sure it was even an excused absence. We woke up and drove to Daddy's office, parked and then his friend Russ drove us as close as it could get to 4th Avenue.
The cool thing was, is that Katie and Justin were smart and they rented a hotel room, with a room that looked right down onto 4th Ave! They did that, because they are a little bit more die hard fans than we were, plus they had new little Baby Sunday to keep warm. So the plan was, that we were going to go to the parade and go to Katie and Justin's room to watch and keep warm. Cept, when we finally got to 4th Ave, we looked for the hotel and it it was on the other side of the street! You would think it would just be easy to cross the street, except for the fact that there were closed 250 thousand people (thats what the news estimated, I don't know how they could come up with that number) and anyone who was actually on the street on 4th Ave, wasn't letting ANYONE get close to the street, fearing that you were going to take their spot. It was cold. I wanted to go to the hotel room "where everyone was at" and Julian said that there was no way we were making it across the street to the hotel with those crowds. Well apparently, he's never met me, cause I put that bet to the test. Christian (2) was in a stroller, so Julian said he would take Christian in the stroller over to the teriyaki place to get something to eat, (cause the parade hadn't even started yet and we were waaaaay down fourth ave) and me and the girls were going to try to make our way across the street. So, I have Addy's (5) hand and I tell Celine (9) to stay close. I'm going to admit, it was hard. People were NOT letting me and my two cute girls through that line for the life of them. Finally we made it through the first line and made it onto 4th avenue where it was clear, because the cops were keeping it that way. The next line of people was EVEN harder to make through!! When was trying to find my opening to get onto the side walk, I had to pull my Motherly lie and say "listen I'm not trying to take your spot, my girls have to use the restroom, so we're trying to make it to that hotel". I had my head down the whole time so we didn't step on anyone, so I didn't notice that once we reached our "opening" I had missed the entrance to the hotel! So not only did we have to cross a thick line of people to get onto the sidewalk, we had to back track to the left to get into the hotel!!!! Finally, we made it to the hotel, find the elevators and make it up to the room. Knock, Knock, no one answers. I was thinking CRAP, nobody is even in the room and after all that work to get here. Cell phones weren't working because everyone was on their cell phone and there were sooooo many people that all of the cell towers were overloaded, so I couldn't get a hold of Katie or Justin. Boo. So there we were standing in the hallway on the 11th floor of Hotel Murano, but we were okay with the fact that the hallway was clear and we had a clear view of the parade once we went by. Not bad right? Cept this time, I really did have to use the bathroom and I didn't want to go back down to the lobby, since there were hundreds of people in there keeping warm. Then I was feeling guilty that we left Julian and Christian out in the freezing cold, and there really was NO WAY he was going to make it across both those lines with a stroller. Then the elevator button dinged and low and behold there was Blake (Cassi's husband)! He was heading back to the room to make himself another drink. We followed him to the room and asked if we could stay in there and watch the parade from there. It really was truly amazing what our view was from the room.
Then Katie and Tina and Tina's little girl Alethia came upstairs and I told Tina I would take care of Alethia in the room so she would stay warm. Katie, Justin, Blake, Guss & Tina, were all sitting outside down on Fourth Ave right in front of the hotel. Then the parade started and the Seahawks busses went by first, then the Ride-The-Duck trucks went by that had all of the SeaGals in it. Plus Marshawn Lynch was on the hood of one of the Duck's throwing out his signature Skittles!
Then in all of these Military Vehicles, they sent the coaches by, Coach Carrol with his family.
The players, organized by field positions.
And of course, Mr. Russell Wilson :)
The parade was ending at Century Link Field where you had to have a ticket to be there, when all the vehicles arrived and then they were going to do this huge ceremony. After all of the vehicles passed by, out of our site anyway, it was a little nerve wracking to watch, because after the very last vehicle in line, the crowds were just following directly behind the vehicles, the police couldn't stop them, so the crowd would be moving, but then the vehicles would have to stop, so all these people would run into each other. Our City has had our fair share of riots, so you never knew what was going to happen with all those people, energy, alcohol, etc. We later found out that there wasn't ONE arrest during the parade. Nice Job Seattle!!
I have some pretty good video of the parade from our view in the window as well. It was amazing to see how fast the streets cleared once the parade went by. Everyone including Julian and Christian made their way back up to Katie and Justin's room, there was, Justin/Katie/Sunday; My Family; Kelly/Tony & their kids, Mike & his kids and Blake. We were watching the rest of the parade make its way to Century Link on TV and everyone was still so amped up. But we were starving, so all the guys, ran across to the same teriyaki place and came back with tons of food. There was a knock at the door, so I answered it and it was a hotel employee, delivering a FISH, in a fish bowl to Katie & Justin for renting a room at the hotel. Ummm, okay....I forgot to take a picture, but they ended up leaving it there. It was getting late, and we all ate and Kelly/Tony, Mike & Blake and the kids left to to take the Light Rail (since thats how they got down there) back to Burien. Well after about a 1/2 hour, Kelly came back with all the kids. I guess the Light Rail and the bus system, just totally failed. They did not anticipate that many people making their way into the City, so it took hours for people to get home. Finally Tony & Mike hired a couple mini-van taxi's to get them all home. When it was time for us to leave, we walked down to street in front of the hotel entrance, and we rented a town car to bring us back to Daddy's office. It was a great day for sure. I'm so glad Daddy talked me into going.
It truly was an amazing experience!
It truly was an amazing experience!
