Veteran's Day Parade

I love parades.  The marching bands, the cool cars and motorcycles, all the excitement and joy.  And I truly love parades that celebrate something as huge as Veteran's Day!  Since it was a lovely day and Sammy and I had no plans we figured it would be fun to head downtown and watch the parade.  So glad we did!  I did miss having my best girl with us but it was still a wonderful morning. 

Now Sammy Wei is ALL boy, I mean 150% and then some!  He loves anything that moves...firetrucks are tops on the list, cars are cool, airplanes and helicopters amaze him and horses make him giggle with glee.  So he was in boyhood heaven at this parade! 

We live in a small city so it's easy to navigate, there's plenty of parking and we easily found a great spot on the sidewalk with a great view of the parade! 

My sweet boy was so excited.  We sat right in front of the ladder firetruck and got to see the American Flag being hung from the ladder across the street.  

And a kind passerby offered to take our picture!

Loved the bands...they were all fantastic and Sammy danced in my arms for the whole parade!

And some "Vrmmmm Vrmmmmm's" according to Sammy!  He loved the noise the bikes made as they revved by....

AND...a helicopter flew over head a couple of times.  AND a jet, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera to capture that.  Let's just say some body was was rather awed by the overhead excitement!

Oh and then the military vehicles....more "Vroommm's" and "Rmmmmppp's".  At this point he sort of got the hang of it and was waving his little flag at everyone!

Then the horse drawn carriage came along and he really wanted to follow after them.

But the old fire truck kept him in place!

And this group of Veterans below were very cool to see go by.  I was standing next to the wives and they explained to me that these army vets were stationed together in Vietnam and reunited here for the parade after 40 years.  It was pretty amazing!

This was the American Flag hanging from the firetruck.  It was magnificent to see, waving in the wind...standing as a symbol of our freedom.  Freedom won by the brave men and women we got to pay tribute to on this day.

I know Sammy didn't understand why we were there, but the joy he got from the experience was just wonderful.  As he gets older he'll learn the why's of it, just as Simone is now.

So Thank You to all of our Veterans and all of those in service now.  (My Dad and brother included!!!!)

J