Classic Cuties: NYC Adventure

Game day!!! a.k.a. Blaine's day.

You see, both kids had their day. Every day in NYC was their day, but on Blaine's day, he picked the game. On Kylee's day, she picked Broadway. So on those two days, we allowed it to be their day. They got to pick restaurants, where to go next, etc, without having to agree with each other.

Look who made it to New York City!!

Can I just tell you how excited my little Yankee was to see the grandfather Yankee? Oh, my! Beyond!

So after breakfast, we took Papa (Nana has been to NYC before) to see Times Square before then showing Papa his first subway

to the stop of NYC,

at least as far as the Onick boys were concerned. And then....then we were there.

I think I heard the music, you know the music that they play in movies when you get there, I think I heard it through my boy's (or boys') excitement.

The subway ride didn't take as long as we thought it would, so we were there a little early for our tour. Blaine had brought his glove in hopes of catching a fly ball during the game, but he had no ball. So he and his Daddy

went into the store to find a ball to play catch

while we waited.

We entered Yankee Stadium for the first time,

caught our breath, and headed upstairs to the Yankee museum. They told us in the elevator that there was no FLASH photography allowed. I specifically asked if I could take photos with no flashed and was assured as long as there was no flash, photography was allowed. I guess Kylee and Blaine didn't hear that part, because when I took my first picture,

they were quick to try to correct me. After working that out with them, I, of course, continued to take pictures in the museum.

As we were led to Monument Park, we caught our first glimpse of the field itself.

We didn't yet realize the granduer of it yet, but, oh, we would. Monument park

was more exciting for the original

Yankee fans, Kylee let me take her picture

while Blaine had to use the restroom. We had been told to go to the restroom before the tour, as there would be no place to go on the tour. But one of the guides told Blaine he could "water" the grass of the visiting team's bullpen. So he took him.

The next stop was a great place for this

amazing shot of Blaine. Can you guess where he is? He is sitting in the Yankee dugout looking out over Yankee Stadium. That's right. The whole family

went inside the Yankee dugout. While we were allowed on the field for this

picture, they were VERY concerned about us stepping ~~toe~~ foot on the grass.

Then it was over. But only the tour was over. We still had the game

to look forward to. Although we took the last tour of the game day, we still had two and a half hours to kill between the end of the tour and the opening of the gates for the game. Lucky for us, there is a Hard Rock Cafe at Yankee Stadium.

Even after our lazy lunch, we still had time before the gates opened at 5. So we shopped

and played more catch

and schmoozed with this guy.

Just as we were lining up to head into the Stadium once again, it came. We had prayed for months for it. Our prayers were answered at the most inopportune time at the most inopportune place.

Rain. And rain it did. It let up enough for us to get to our amazing seats. This

picture was taken with no zoom. We were that close. As we sat, it rained more. At one point, it was raining so hard, we sat there in our ponchos, no one speaking, just letting it fall over us. We sat there long enough Blaine fell asleep, in his chair, in the rain, in his poncho. It was raining hard enough I didn't dare take out my camera for a picture of the sweet boy snoozing. Then it stopped, and after a 45 minute rain delay, they pulled off the tarp

and said, "Play Ball!" And as we watched

play ball they did.

And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, CC Sabathia threw a pitch to Josh Hamilton, who hit a pop fly ball right to our section, two rows above us. When he

caught it, he gave it to Blaine.

We bought that beer he is drinking and every other beer he drank that night until he left. I would have bought him anything he asked for after that smile on Blaine's face.

And it kept getting better. I knew this part was coming, but it didn't dim the excitement of it. While doing my research, I discovered you can pay to have anything you want put on the LCD screen, matched in size only by the Dallas Cowboys in their stadium, while it is read as an announcement all through the stadium. They only do 10 per game, and it is first come, first serve. I told nobody about it. Ours came in the 5th inning when this

popped up on the aforementioned screen and echoed through the stadium in the announcer's voice. Blaine's head popped up. He raised his hand as if they were looking for him, and then I got the grin matching the one in the fly ball picture. It was worth every penny just for that smile, not to mention the fact that the money goes to a charity in New York for underpriviledged children.

In the 7th inning, "this guy" came back around to get Blaine on the LCD screen again.

When we started in the beginning of planning this trip calling this day "Blaine's day", boy, did we have no idea how much of Blaine's day it would really be.

Don't worry. Kylee got what she wanted, too. From the beginning of planning Blaine's day, all she wanted from the ballpark was kettle corn. I bought her the biggest amount of kettle corn they had,

and I carried that bucket all the way to El Paso.

You don't see pictures of Papa and Nana sitting with us because originally it was just the four of us. Then I had a brilliant, daughter-in-law of the year idea (hehe). I asked Joey if he wanted to invite his parents, and we would buy their tickets for Mother's Day and Father's Day. While we couldn't get seats right next to us, they were only one section over, on the same row, but the Yankees are as strict about where you are allowed to go with your tickets as they are about stepping on the grass. Towards the end of the game, though, as the Yankee's lead got larger and the crowd got smaller, the kids snuck over to their section to visit.