Taking Luke to his first (real) parade!

So truth be told, I’ve taken Luke to a parade before.  His first fourth of July, matt and I went up to Crown Point and took him out for the parade.  However, being as he wasn’t even real food yet, it didn’t count.  This has to to be in a handbook somewhere…if you’re not even eating normal human food, milestone accomplishments are up for parental approval.

 

Oh Crap.  If I discredit his “first” parade, that means I took him to his first without Matt.  Then I have to listen to Matt complain about it.  Hrrrrm…we’ll solve this by saying I took him to his first NON-4th of July parade. 

Moving on: 

Matt had to work so ‘gram-ma’ went with Luke and I to Harlan for the Harlan Days parade.  I think I was more excited than Luke because I was interested to see how he handled it.  We almost went to the Three Rivers parade, but I chickened out at the the thought of taking Luke downtown with all of those people by  myself.  We watched on tv, however, and Luke stood pretty much right on top of the screen and waved, yelling “A-hi!! A-hi!!!”.  Since that day, when he’s on the sidewalk or waiting somewhere and he sees a car drive by, he waves and says hi to the passer-bys.  

We arrived and had to wait about 45 minutes for the parade to start.  This got a little boring, but he did enjoy waving at everyone going by.   The highlight was when the jogger passed by and he yelled “GO GO GO—RUN RUN RUN---USA USA!”.  It sounds like a bad joke but, “you know you’ve been watching too much Olympics when….”. 

Once the parade started, he did pretty awesome.  I think he was torn between thinking he had to wave to everyone, avoiding sirens and loud engines, and staring in wonderment every time someone handed him candy (or winged it at him).  For a toddler who can’t have most hard candies, he brought in a pretty impressive haul.  (Related note:  I can’t wait to take him trick or treating this year, he is going to have a blast!). 

I think his favorite part was seeing Icy coming down the street as he started jumping and yelling “ICY ICY HOCKEY HOCKEY!”

 

Some Pictures:

 Waiting with Mom

Waiting with Grandma

Practicing waving and dancing

Looking and watching

ICY ICY HOCKEY HOCKEY!

Should I feel weird my child was literally sitting in the gutter? Nah.

Hauling his candy bag to the car. 

I must be crazy OR My “vacation”

So my Uncle bought a cabin in the Mountains.  Or so I was told.    Grandma wanted to go visit Uncle Rich’s new cabin and I said “Sure, I’ll take you”. 

Now, I’m not saying I believe in destiny or in a lot of “hippie dippy stuff” (as some would say) but there are times when even I say to myself “I think the universe is trying to tell us something”. 

We intended on leaving Wednesday and coming home Sunday.  There were issues with scheduling and it was moved back Thursday-Monday.  NBD, right?  It’s cool.  (#1)

Then Grandma came down with Shingles.   Hmmm, it’s not a bad case, so the trip is still on.  (#2)

Then her car (the method of travel) needed a transmission rebuilt.  (#3)

Then we had issues renting a car.  (#4)

Then the rental car we had----a mere 2 1/2 hours on the road--- had the check engine light come on. (#5)

…………

 

Ok, I hear you Universe! 




That being said, being either stupid or just Pierce’s (or perhaps they are one in the same), we continued on our journey and I’m glad we did.  We had a great time visiting with friends and family, seeing the new place and the country around there and having our fair share of laughs along the way.  Some pictorial highlights:

 

 

Pictures from Newfound Gap (near Gatlinburg)

 

 

Pictures from the river near where we picnicked.

 

Pictures from Luke’s first time eating a whole wedge of watermelon.  The last picture is my favorite.  He was saying “Mama wahwahlemon? More?”

 

Bald River Falls

 

 

The view from Rich’s back porch and the view on the front. 

Already adapting to the mountain laid back lifestyle. 

Some of my latest photography