4th of July parade

I have not been to a good 4th of July parade for almost 10 years. The parade in Illinois was very political , but more importantly did not throw candy. I have not been able to find a city or community in Pennsylvania that actually has a parade for the 4th of July. Pretty sad huh! Knowing that we were headed out west for the independence day holiday, I asked my mom before we made plans if Evanston has a 4th of July parade, and if they throw candy. She answered yes to both questions.  You can imagine my distress when on July 3rd, she found out at work that Evanston was in fact not having a parade. However, my moms friend Tori, whom she works with, came to the rescue. She lives in Woodruff, Utah and told us she would save us a spot in front of her house where we could not only watch the parade, but also pick up candy. Hooray! It sounded like this was exactly what I was after. My excuse is that I wanted this experience for my children (which is partially true), but I was probably more excited for the candy than my children were. 

Here is Hazel hanging out with grandma while we waited for the parade to start.

It took the kids a while to catch on to the concept of picking up the candy, but once they did, they were not afraid to go out in the street to get some. You can see from the above picture that Zabien put on his "binoculars" in order to find all the unclaimed candy.

They were so cute. They made sure they got enough variety of candy to share with everyone. Not surprising, they were picky about what kinds they picked up for themselves. 

Eliza liked the horses and drill team, Zabien really liked the fire truck and tractors.

Hazel on the other hand was not a fan of the parade. She found the whole thing much to sunny and much too hot. The weather was really hot for Evansron, Wy standards, but compared to the humidity of Pennsylvania, it really wasn't too bad. 

Hazel tolerated it well, but when the parade turned around and came back, she was not amused and let us know that enough is enough. 

The older kids loved the extra candy. Eliza picked up a book light which she is thrilled about. She went to bed with it that night attached to a book. She has been telling everyone that she can go to bed with a long book and read it until she gets sleepy. Best parade throw ever!

I think Zaby could have been more efficient at picking up goods if he would have put down his baby doll, but he wouldn't part with it. 

Zaby with one of his favorite characters, Mater. 

When the parade was over, they each sorted out their candy; giving away what they didn't want, and giving each other what they had duplicates of.  Later they told grandma they would only give her a kiss if she took them to another parade. With that remark we can conclude their first exposure to a parade was a big success. I don't think it will be their last parade this vacation.