Memorial Day

Memorial Day is celebrated early in our town since the local university graduates every Memorial Day weekend causing the town to pretty much double in size that weekend. This year the annual Memorial Day parade down Main Street was held on May 16th and we arrived about an hour early to scope out a great (shaded) spot for the festivities. We had packed a picnic lunch and met some nice people sitting around us and so the time before the parade started passed pretty quickly.

I felt overwhelmed with gratitude to all the people in the parade that endured great personal sacrifice to ensure our safety. There were so many people - young, old, men, women, children in school programs, Vietnam vets, Korean Vets, POW and MIA groups - in the parade and each and every one of them received lots of applause from the crowd. Julia was happy to be at the parade until she saw the UD mascot coming down the street and she immediate fled to Daddy's arms and they moved as far away from the street as possible without leaving the area and she spent the remainder of the parade stuck to Daddy. Chris really enjoyed this display of affection from Julia since it is usually reserved for Mommy. However, she turns quickly into a Daddy's girl when people dressed as characters or thunder/lightening are around.

Emma loved the parade but not like we had imagined. We thought she would be glued to all the action in front of her with the parade going by, but that was not the case. She seemed to be very interested in everything going on behind her and kept straining her neck to see all the non-action going on there. This made me laugh but we were so happy that both girls were able to enjoy their first Memorial Day parade and learn a bit more about our nation's history.