I love a parade

This afternoon I got this crazy idea to go to the Chula Vista Starlight Parade with both the kids by myself. So we headed out, got stuck in traffic, eventually found a spot to park, realized the line for food was way too long, and then sat next to a really nice family. Thankfully we had lots of snacks and Lauren had her own supper.

We had to wait about an hour for the fun to start, so I bought Aaron one of those light up swords, yes the one I promised myself I would never buy. It was the best $6 I spent this week. He had a great time playing with the sword and his new friend next to us.

We had a great time watching the parade. I think I might be the only person in the entire world who gets emotional at a parade. It never fails to make me teary eyed. I think it must remind me of growing up in a small town, where the Memorial Day Parade was the highlight of our marching band career. I just remember looking for my mom and grandparents along the way and seeing all those familiar faces cheering us on. I could measure each year of my life not by my age or grade in school, but by what group I marched with in the parade.

This parade was interesting. Half of it was some type of youth group like boy scouts, girl scouts, the safety patrols from all the schools. Some nice marching bands, lots of old cars all decorated for Xmas. Then there was the battle of the radio stations. I have never seen anything like it. It was like 30 minutes of back to back truck/buses with speakers blaring for a lot of different stations. It was kind of weird.

But the best part of the entire night was Aaron bringing his letter out into the parade for the mailman to put in the box for Santa. It was so cute and emotional. I just happened to read the website for the parade and saw the info on bringing a letter and then the post person would collect it and if you included a return address, the kids would receive a response. So I had Aaron draw another picture, because there is no way I am parting with the original. (I will blog about that another day). I cried watching him go out into the street to bring it to them. It was so cute. It just showed me how much he has grown. I think I heard a collective sigh out of the onlookers watching him too.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, I had my hands full as it was. But just picture Aaron all sticky from the candy cane he ate, waving a blue light up sword and you've got the idea.