The Parade was…Wet.

Our city has a 4th of July celebration every year, the weekend before the 4th. It's a multiple day event, and there are several different activities to participate in. There is a cute little parade on Friday evening, and anyone in town is welcome to be in it. I think all you have to do is register ahead of time. People can walk, ride a bike, 4-wheeler, golf cart, ride a horse, drive a car, make a float…anything you can think of. It seems like it would be fun to try, I just haven’t yet convinced myself to do it. Maybe someday? For now, I’ll stick with just WaTCHing it.
This crazy weather, though, made it a little interesting. It was gloomy all day, and rained on and off. Of course, when the parade was to begin it was really cold and a bit rainy. I planned to just sit in the car, but threw some lawn chairs in the back, just in case, and the kids brought their umbrellas as well.
There were actually a lot of people just sitting in lawn chairs, getting wet! So, we ended up doing the same, and the kids got to use their umbrellas.
After a little while, though, I developed a plan. I opened the trunk, and we used it as a rain cover! I felt smart. But, then I did see other people doing the same thing. I guess, as they say, great minds think alike.







Anyway, it was fun. And then it ended. And then we went home, and went to bed…and then the sun came out! …And dried up all the rain.

The next morning, Saturday, was the annual firefighter breakfast. John is the Assistant Fire Chief so he gets to help out, and had to be to the station at way early o’clock.
The kids and I were able to sleep in, relax a little, and then headed to breakfast around 830am-ish. It’s a nice little breakfast, and fun to have the fire fighters and EMT's cooking for everyone.
After the breakfast there is a carnival, that apparantly starts at 930am. For some reason I thought it was starting at 9am, and so when we finished eating (at 9am) we walked over to the park. I was boggled by how little people were there, and the games and stuff weren’t really doing anything. I just assumed they were running late, but later found out I was just EARly.
I only bought 6 dollars worth of tickets, because I wanted to get Malachi home for a nap. Our first stop was, of course, the BOUncE House. Anything big, colorful, and full of air is definately a must. Ati was super excited about it, and Eli wasn’t sure what to think. He wanted to go to the balls, wherever that was?
Ati gave her 3 tickets and went inside. She had a blast, just couldn’t get enough of it. Eli then decided he wanted to try it, but he was so hesitant. AFTER he paid his 3 tickets, I spent 10 minutes trying to convince him to actually go in. He finally put his head in, and looked around,



and then came back out. After some more in and out, he did manage to go in all the way,



and had a fun time; it just took a LOT of convincing.

After Eli was in, Malachi decided he wanted to try it. I hadn't planned on having him go in, but I put him up to the door to look inside. He was so excited that he started to crawl in, and the lady tending told me I could go in with him. I considered it, then Tad finally decided he wanted to go in and said he’d watch Malachi. So I let Tad be in charge. They all had a lot of fun.







After the bouncing we moved on to the “super-tall-blow-up-slide”. Strangely, Ati, who’s normally afraid to try anything scary, was gung-ho ready to go on it. She paid her tickets and went right up.



She had so much fun that she went way more than the allotted 3 times (shh, don’t tell). Tad also went on it a bunch.
Eli at first wanted to, he actually ran over to it? but just after he paid his tickets he had a change of plans. So, here we went again, more convincing and pleading. He finally got up on it and walked as far as the stairs, but turned right back around.
After more annoyed pleading I decided to just carry him up and slide down with him. I made the decision and followed through with it so quickly that I don’t think he had time to realize what was happening.
Boy, he is HEAVY! Especially climbing up a steep flight of blow-up stairs! I was going fast enough that my adrenaline helped me up, but I nearly didn’t make it. Once at the top I heard a slight protest but didn’t give him time to think; I flung us over to the slide (where some other kid was hesitating; he had to quickly get out of the way before we plowed him over), and down we went. I might have been holding my breath, I don’t know, but it was actually kinda scary! I tend to not do well with heights, and it’s been a while since I’ve been up high. I really didn’t have time to think about either, but I can see why he wouldn’t want to do it.
I didn’t dare try it again; my extra adrenaline strength wouldn’t last to get us back up those stairs. Luckily, in the meantime, my other 2 kids were just happily sliding along, many, many times…so, I didn’t feel cheated by paying for Eli, who wouldn’t even go on it.
By that time, we were almost out of tickets (they each had one left) and Malachi was ready for a nap-he made sure EVERYone knew it, too. We quickly found one more game to play, and then headed for home. The kids were sad to be leaving so quickly, but I felt good about not staying too long and “invoking the wrath of the over-tired little…people”.