Party of 5: Opening Day 2013-The Official Unofficial Holiday in St. Louis

Monday was that very special day again in St. Louis. The day that almost every St. Louisian has circled on their calendar and starts counting down to beginning in January. Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals!!

St. Louis truly is "Baseball Heaven" and there is no other place that I would rather be that at Busch Stadium on Opening Day. This year I decided to surprise Kanin and pull him out of school to go to his very first Opening Day. He was so excited!

For the past several years I have been in charge of the tailgate. I normally get all of the food and get down to Busch early in the morning; however, after spending the entire day out in the rain at last year's Opening Day, and the forecast of rain again this year, I decided to skip the official tailgate and just eat at one of the restaurants downtown.

We were meeting other people downtown so we brought a cooler, some chairs, and bags to hang out for a bit.

My love and me

Two of my 3 main men

Scott and our nephew, Paul

Our niece, Susie, and her hubs, Doug. Notice that he is wearing a blue shirt . . .he's a Cubs fan. He was banned from wearing Cubs gear to Cards' Opening Day so he chose the bluest shirt he could find.

Our neighbor, Corey, and my bonus daughter, Emily

If you ever get the chance to come to St. Louis, you must go to Grant's Farm to see the Clydesdales. They are beautiful, graceful, and elegant animals. When they entered in to the stadium, and I got really excited, Kanin made the comment that "they are just horses". I had to school my son!! The Clydesdales ARE NOT just horses. To St. Louis, the Clydesdales represent so much more. Yes, they are Anheuser-Busch (which employees thousands of St. Louisans) and beer (which we are a drinking town) but they are a representation of the pride of St. Louis. They are a connection to the past.

Each year for Opening Day, after the Clydesdales come out, we have the player parade. This parade is always led off by our Hall of Famers.

Bob Gibson

Lou Brock

Red Schoendienst

Ozzie Smith

Whitey Herzog

Of course, the biggest glaring absence this year was that Stan the Man Musial wasn't there. Sadly, we lost him over the winter. He will never be forgotten in St. Louis. The Musial family unveiled a new memorial out on the left-field fall.

After the Musial memorial, the players all started to come around.

Cy Young Winner, Chris Carpenter

Adam Wainwright saluting the soldiers who were preparing for the National Anthem.

Kanin's favorite player, Jason Motte

Matt Holliday

The most exciting thing of the day happened in the 6th inning when Reds shortstop, Brandon Phillips, hit a home run ball. One of the bleacher bums we sit with caught the ball and then gave it to Kanin! He was SO excited!