The parade turned out to be just what we had heard--awesome! It lasted nearly a full 2 hours and there were loads of people there. The Kiwanis club has a bus service that can pick people up at various parking places around town and take them to the parade route, so we decided to use that. We parked at the high school behind our house and boarded a school bus that had to take an absolutely crazy route because of all the parade traffic. Kai LOVED being on the school bus. It was certainly a highlight of his 4th. We arrived at the parade right as it was starting and so we didn't have a ton of time to stake out a good spot, but we did alright. About half way through the parade a family that was sitting on the curb a few feet in front of us decided to switch spots and so we were able to get right up on the curb. That was awesome for Kai as it got him closer to the people who were throwing out candy. The candy was his absolute favorite part. I think I liked the people who were throwing out frozen Otter Pops the best! Either way, we had a great time and saw lots of neat things. Pretty much anyone that wanted to have an entry in the parade could. There was even one girl that just drove her car through the parade with a large sign on it about her lost dog. No kidding! But there were lots of other awesome entries, too. I think we'll be going back again as it certainly is a fun 4th of July tradition. Here's a small sampling of our parade experience.
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| Waiting for the bus. Poor Finn got sunscreen in his eye and it bothered him the entire time. I felt awful! |
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| Happy to be on the bus! |
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| Our initial parade viewing spot. Here we're seeing some of our armed forces. |
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| Kai loves motorcycles! |
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| A submarine!! |
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| As Finn would say, "It's a go!" |
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| This reminded me of our nieces Annalese and Tessa. |
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| This is where we got a bit closer. Yay! |
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| One of Kai's favorite cars is a beetle. He loved these beetles. |
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| The fire trucks signal the end of the parade. And they were LOUD! Poor Finn started crying after one of them sounded their horn and the driver (a female) heard him and felt really bad. She made direct eye contact with me as if to say "sorry". It was nice, but not her fault. |
That night we decided to go to Culver's for burgers and custard. Since Kai ended up taking a nap after the parade (a first in a long time!) we let him stay up for the fireworks. He loved his first firework display. But I will admit that it went later than I thought and he ended up being quite a cranky boy the next day. I'm not so sure he'll get to join us for fireworks next year. We'll see.
We certainly had a great 4th of July! I'm looking forward to doing it next year!
1 comment:
There's nothing more American than a Fourth of July parade! Looks like a great time!
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