The Hazel Dell Parade

A few weeks ago Tyler worked a Saturday at the Gresham branch while Quincy, Braxton, and I went to the annual Hazel Dell Parade with my parents.

I remember going to this parade as a kid. Some years it was raining, some years it was cloudy, and other years it was hot and sunny, but because it's held in May the weather's always changing from year to year. I remember watching the parade, heck... even BEING in the parade one year. It was never a really big parade, but large enough for a small child to get excited about. So as you could imagine, I was happy to be able to take my boys to it... even more happy that this year it was SUNNY and hot!

That is until we got to the parade...

It was crowded... more so than it has been in years past. It was also difficult to keep Braxton out of the sun. It doesn't take much for new baby skin to sunburn, so I tried to keep him out of it for as long as possible. He wasn't too happy about being stuck in the stroller and mostly looked like this most the time:

Quincy, however, LOVED it. What kid doesn't like cheap free hard candy being thrown from parade floats and cars, clowns, fire trucks, pirate ships, music and tractors. Meanwhile I was able to find humor and pleasure in watching some of my old schools perform in the parade and got quite a kick out of some of the ridiculous costumes some of those poor band kids had to wear. I know the pictures on here aren't fabulous... I was snapping them from behind a stroller... You get the point.

Needless to say it was still a fun parade. Maybe we'll even manage to go to the Rose Parade or the Starlight Parade in Portland this year. Quincy would LOVE it!