4th of July Parade

We had been planning for weeks to take the boys to the 4th of July parade in Cannon Falls and were a little disappointed when it started raining 10 minutes before we were going to leave. Our plan was to leave our house 1 1/2 hours before the parade was suppose to start and get a good spot and then have a picnic lunch while we waited. We had just finished loading up the van and it started pouring down rain, but we decided to go anyway and the closer we got to Cannon we realized that it hadn't rained as hard as it did at home. We thought that we were plenty early and with the rain, maybe it would deter people from getting there so early and we could get a great spot.

We still ended up with a great spot, but the rain definitely didn't deter people from coming early!

We all walked together to pick out our spot, but then Kaden and I went back to the van so he could eat. As soon as I got into the van it started raining super hard. All I could think about was poor Kristoffer and Karter sitting out in the rain. Luckily we packed our 2 big umbrellas, so they were relatively dry when we got back. Our lunch didn't really go as planned, only Karter ended up eating anything!

By the time the parade started, the rain had pretty much stopped except for the big drops falling off of the trees. Kaden didn't like those hitting his head, so he decided to hold the umbrella!

Turns out, my opinions weight very heavily on Karter and if I don't like something he doesn't either. We had been talking last week about clowns and I told him that I didn't like them. When he saw the clowns coming down the parade he said "mommy doesn't like clowns" and when they got closer to him he freaked out a little bit! He was a little jumpy after that, but overall he really had fun and came home with a bucket full of candy!

Kaden hung out in his car seat most of the time, but we did have to hold him when the fire engines came by. He has excellent hearing and those really scared him!

It was definitely a small town parade made up of local businesses, farmers and churches...but despite the rain, we made some great family memories...and we were all worn out afterwards!!!