VictoRAY!!!

Any idea where this sweet little girl was yesterday?


Why at the State House, of course!


And not just for a visit.
In case you live under a rock, or if you're not from around these here parts, the Carolina Gamecocks won the College World Series, earning them the title of the 2011 National Champions!


Back to back Champions at that!

And just to let you know how big of a deal that is to all of us in the greater Columbia area, they flew the Gamecock flag on top of the State House along with the American flag and the State flag.

We're serious about our Gamecocks!!!


To honor the baseball team and their amazing accomplishment, the City of Columbia held a parade in their honor. Despite temperatures being near 100, we decided to head downtown and join in the festivities.





There were people for as far as the eye could see.

Garnet & black were the colors of the day:)

This little girl was amazed - mostly with the birds and the helicoptor, but still amazed:)

The parade was a little longer than we anticipated - it seems that if you wanted to be in it, they let you! We waited in the sweltering heat for two hours waiting for our chance to cheer for our baseball team.

We finally got a glimpse of Cocky and realized we were nearing the 'good' part of the parade.



The coaching staff was next.
Congrats Ray Tanner:)



A crowd favorite:)



Then the baseball players arrived with that amazing trophy!


* please excuse the blurriness of these pictures - despite waiting two hours for a front row seat, the police officers let the crowd behind the barricade run up in the street once the baseball players arrived. That definitely made for some upset people, who like us, had been waiting on the curb for two hours, but what do you do. I just held my camera up over my head and hoped for the best!

The crowd was excited, to say the least.

Seeing BOTH National Championship trophies was amazing!

After the parade, the team gathered on the steps of the State House.
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin made some welcoming remarks.
And while we wanted to stay and see hear more, it was just too hot!

We started our ten minute walk back to the car, and to our surprise, ran into Sir Big Spur!

Sir Big Spur's owner was nice enough to hold him so Becca could pet him.

This was probably the highlight of the day for her:)

Congrats Carolina baseball! You've made us all proud to be Gamecock fans yet again!
We can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for our team!
Until next year...