Getting Ready For The Parade

We like to get downtown early on parade day so we can park our van relatively close to David's truck (which we've parked in front of the First Financial Bank West Building, 400 Cypress, the night before) and not have to carry the boys stuff and our cooler and lawn chairs too terribly far. My parents always enjoy watching the parade with us and they get downtown early too. (They'd like to park next to us in our nice shady spot but that area is usually too full already no matter how early they get there. We can still all sit together though.) Anyway first thing we did Saturday morning was trade places with my Dad's pick-up and David's because Dad's has a bigger bed to watch the parade from.

Next we walk down to McKay's Bakery (while the boys stay with Grandma and Poppo) and get some yummy breakfast treats. This first picture is of Benjamin showing off the crumbs on his lips from the muffin and cookie he ate. (No, we don't usually have cookies for breakfast but we make an exception on parade day.)

Grandma and I brought toys to keep the boys (including Poppo and David) entertained while we're waiting for the parade to start. These little wind-up hummers from Grandma and Poppo's house drove really well on Poppo's tool box.

We brought Nathan's view master from our house and Grandma and I both brought crayons and coloring books for Benjamin. He is quite the coloring fool these days and he and Nathan both love for me to do the dot-to-dot pictures for them.
Nathan loves looking at his view master. He can really concentrate on it for quite a long time for a three-year-old.

Benjamin is just coloring away with his big crayons Grandma brought.

Nathan entertained us for a while by making all his cute expressions (who needs toys when you've got looks like these). Here we start out with his sad face,
then his surprised face (if you look closely in the reflection in the window you can see it),

his mean face,

I'm not sure about this one,
and his silly face. This last picture makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

The boys also like to pass the time playing in Poppo's truck.

Benjamin looks so little sitting there.

I like this shot of Benjamin looking at himself in the rear view mirror...
and this shot of him smiling for his dad.
"Caution: Objects in mirror are closer that they appear." Not really.
And finally we can see the long awaited beginning of the parade as it turns the corner in front of the Civic Center and starts to make its way up Cypress Street. Yeah!