Parade Day!

 

When I was a kid, growing up in California, our town used to have a "Posy Parade", which went through the old downtown section of town. I have a very foggy memory of going to that parade, when I was quite little. One of my siblings might have been in it that year, but I can't be sure.

 

I can be sure that my kids will have more than just a single foggy memory of their hometown's parades, because we've made it into such a tradition to go watch the parade every year.

 

This year was one of two that I can think of in which Todd has been able to come along to watch the parade with us. I love that he could make time to get away from work long enough to be there for it -- not because I think he particularly enjoys parades, but because Miss Emma wanted him to be there with us.  There's something to be said for making memories together as a family.

 

I took a lot more photos than this, but I didn't want to slap them all on the blog. You only need the highlights, right??   Right.

 

 

All good small-town American parades should start with the National Guard marching with the state & national flags. It's a rule. Or if it isn't a rule, it OUGHT to be a rule.

 

Emma tried to balance the freebie sunglasses she got:

She and Todd both wore their sunglasses.... although Todd wore his for quite a bit longer than Emma lasted with hers!

One of her favorites was the "horse with spots". Living near Palouse Country means we usually see an Appaloosa or two in the parade.

This nifty float looks a lot more dangerous than it really was. But I can't help thinking that it had to be a weird sensation to be the girl on the bar. She was fully extended, repeatedly doing full layouts on the bar, while the float was moving forward.

(No worries here, people -- she was securely strapped onto a sleeve on that bar, so that she couldn't have fallen off it, even if she had let go.)

 

The REAL highlight of the parade for Emma (and for us) was getting to see our two teenagers marching with the high school band.

 

They weren't playing as they went past us, so Alyssa was able to wave right at Em!

 

Also, I get to brag a little on Alys (after all, it's MY blog).  You can't see it very well in these photos, but Alyssa is wearing The Whistle in the parade. With The Whistle, she's the one who leads the band and gets them started on their songs -- they don't use a drum major. It fell to her because a) she's a senior, b) her friend didn't want to do it, and c) she was willing. Sometimes, that's all it takes.

The shimmy move you see (Darcie is right next to Alyssa, center) came from a dance the kids were doing that same weekend for the big rivalry football game. It sure jazzed up a regular march down the street.

A friend of ours, who is an EMT, caught this performer's view photo of us on his camera phone as he passed us in the parade:

And what did Emma think? Well, the smile says it all:

 

Plus, the fact that she scored huge on candy, helps. Parades are better than Halloween in that respect: you don't even have to dress up or go door-to-door -- they just throw the candy right at you!