Friends, I think I might have a new favorite holiday - because this whole three day weekend/Fourth of July extravaganza was a blast! We three Haucks hit the road to Dayton on Friday afternoon during Max's nap - and crammed so much fun into our two day visit!
On Friday evening, we all ate dinner at Chipotle and then Mama and Papa
had a little date night action at the Greene (local shopping mall). Meanwhile,
Max, Gramps, Titi, and Mims went to the park - which eventually turned into
a run through the splash pad!
I thought he might be nervous, but once he was wet and the pants came off
(he loves being pantless) - it seems like it was game on! He also made a little
friend (named Alex) and they ran around like crazies. Mims recounted that they
almost got a whole bucket of water dumped on their head several times,
but ran away seconds before it tipped :) those lucky ducks! I just love
how brave he is getting around water!
When they put Max back in his car seat to go home, Mim's and Titi said
he said, "I had fun with Alex". So precious. :)
On Saturday morning, all the early birds headed to the Americana parade in Centerville where Mim's and Grandpa live. Lucky for us, they had put our chairs out A WEEK beforehand so we
had prime real estate on the parade route. It was also lucky in that we only had to walk a short distance and we did not have to wait very long for the festivities to start! But first,
let us take five hundred, alright five pictures of how adorable we are :)
Max was living it up in his Fourth of July gear - from the red sunglasses, to his red
shorts, to his Mr. Independent (so appropriate these days) shirt - the holiday
apparel was in full force. Highlights from the parade included - CANDY (turns out
when you're a real cute kid, you get lots of candy...including two suckers, and an otter pop all before 11:00 in the morning...YOLO or something) - also, ALL THE FIRE TRUCKS,
and the doggies, and police men too!
Max's signature phrase - "did you see that digger/truck/doggie/anything that moves?" to
whoever he happens to be sitting with or around. Some of the awesome things he
pointed at are pictured below - in no particular order:
horses...and the pooper scoopers...
a tiny remote control car with two dogs in front....
a flat bed with a digger on the back...
Abe Lincoln and Betsy Ross...
the Centerville Washington Township Park District float...
(shout out CWPD - the place I worked for three summers
during college...great memories)
and last but not least - a concrete alligator with a firecracker in its mouth -
because, why not?
Not pictured - the stilt walkers, the goose patrol truck (who knew?), civic bands,
policemen on bicycles, horseback, and cars, corvettes and other fancy cars,
and lots of armed forces men and women.
You can bet that Max waved that precious chubby little
hand at nearly all of those things and more! He also bounced his little
bootie in my lap when the Centerville High School marching band
came by. Also sidebar: I've decided in Rob and I's retirement years
we will take up our respective instruments and join some sort of
civic band so we can roll through all these parades full time.
He is not fully convinced of this plan - but luckily
I have quite some time to convince him.
Grandmim has been hyping this parade for nearly a year (since we didn't make it
last year) - and I was kind of skeptical that it would be as fun as she made it out to be.
Grandmim is a notorious exaggerator....but - in this case the parade WAS SO GREAT!
Like, at one point, I turned to her and said, "'I'm having so much fun today!!".
Max was so well behaved (no potty accidents even after he refused the porta potty, though who
can blame him), loving all the people and things to see, was more than willing to
sit in our laps, and wave his little flag around! Seeing him scamper off our laps to
grab the candy and then come running back, was just magic. His
excitement for nearly everything was just so contagious!
Perhaps as an adult the wonder and awe of a small town parade had begun to lose
it's sparkle on me - but after being there with our little tribe on Saturday - consider
me a parade goer for life (though maybe next year Grandmim will put our seats in the shade)! :)
The rest of our Fourth was spent at the pool (another post for another day),
plant shopping (always a favorite), and of course the obligatory cook out with family.
I'm already looking forward to Labor day - bring on more three day weekends, I say!
Xoxo
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