Friday, June 11, 2010

Grand Old Day

On the first Sunday in June, the city of St. Paul shuts down a 15-block stretch of Grand Avenue for the biggest block party in Minnesota. After a very early morning Mass (7:30... not our usual m.o.) we met up with my dad and headed into St. Paul for the 10:00 parade. The parade didn't get to us until an hour after it had started, so Max and Grandpa took lots of strolls down the street while we waited, each time coming back with a different food item (cheese curds, lemonade, corn on the cob...)

Max LOVES parades, even if there is no candy thrown. He stands at the curb and dances, waving at everyone who passes. We got to see, among other things, a middle school marching band, a group of Irish Wolfhounds (oh memories!!), police cars and fire trucks, and bagpipers!


After the parade, we began the trek down Grand to the children's area of the festival. Twelve blocks later, we finally looked at a map and realized that we had started on the exact opposite end of the street and would have to go the full fifteen blocks before we made it to the kids games and pony rides. Oh, and by this time Max was sound asleep in the stroller.


We decided at this point it would be silly to turn around so we kept trucking. By the time we got there, Max was awake once again, so he got to spend some quality time with Grandpa and Daddy while Lucian and I took a break from the stroller in some shade. He made it down the blow-up slide with Daddy and chomped his way through a delicious Mango on a Stick (genius. genius.)

A fun day was had by all, even with our lack of planning. 30 blocks in flip flops without sunscreen is a long hike! But the kids were great (well-shaded in their stroller, don't worry!) and it was fun to be out and about on a gorgeous early summer day.

1 comment:

megan said...

that first picture with Max and your dad is adorable! He is laughing so hard. and Lucian is getting big, I cannot wait to meet him!