I love a parade!

Today was our Stake Pioneer Day Picnic at the park. The last time we went was back in 2006, when Errol was a newborn, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Errol was fine, slept the whole time, but the weather was hot and muggy, and they ran out of food before even half of the people had been fed. Not much fun at all. We hadn't been back since, but this year I heard so many people talking about how excited they were for it, that we decided to give it another shot, and I'm SO glad we did. :)

We skipped the Stake Softball Tournament that started at 9am, and just showed up for the Primary Parade (where the kids could dress up as Pioneers and walk along one of the park trails that runs along side the covered picnic area), the food, and then the carnival games and free elephant ears! When they announced the parade in Primary last Sunday it sealed the deal that we would be going, at least in Raia's mind, because she's been wanting to be in a parade ever since we watched the 4th of July parade earlier this month. Sure, this parade didn't have any floats, and there was no candy to throw out, and it lasted all of five minutes, but she was SO SO proud to be in it. :) She wore a pioneer bonnet that I got at an Activity Day camp a couple years ago with her shorts and t-shirt so that she could "be a wagon girl".

After the parade we had pulled pork sandwiches and hot dogs with chips, potato salad, lemonade, and cookies. All sorts of unhealthy stuff, but it was all delicious. Then the kids got to do carnival games, like a balloon popping game, a water gun "shoot out" area with hay bales to hide behind, face painting, and of course the big play ground and sandbox. And elephant ears. Can't forget those! They were so good. :-9 Errol and Patrick spent most of their time in the sand box, but both Errol and Raia went into the water gun shootout and had fun squirting each other and their friends until the water ran out on their pistols.

We ended up being there for 3 hours, and Patrick took a short nap in the sling. As we drove home we drove past the city splash park, and Raia and Errol begged to go to it. Since I had a wee bit of energy that hadn't been sapped out by the sun yet, I took the kids over there while George and Patrick relaxed in the comfort of our A/C window unit. A third of the water fountains weren't working, but there was enough water squirting up, shooting out, and raining down to get me and the kids thoroughly soaked.

And as if that didn't exhaust the kids enough, they wanted to play t-ball in the backyard after dinner. Patrick knows how to stand up the tee and place the plastic ball gently on top, then make a go at swinging the bat at it in his own one-handed toddler way. He gives the bat two tries to connect (one time back and forth), then he'll just bat it off with his hand. It's so cute to watch. :) Raia was a bit more advanced in her play, wanting me to be the pitcher, Errol the catcher (with a sandbox bucket as a "mit") and George as the out-fielder. It was fun. :)

It's days like this that make me wish Summer could last forever.