Renton River Days!

Some years we go to Renton River Days and some we don't. Seeing a parade was on our Summer Bucket List so we had to make it this year. Of course the night before the parade was when I ended up in the ER with Zeke for 3 hours. When I got into bed I wasn't even sure if we'd make it since I was so tired. I'm glad we did though...so much fun with the kiddos! 

We got there around 9:25...the parade starts at 10. In years past there has been so many people so I wanted to make sure we got a good spot. We ended getting to sit on the south side of the street so we were only in the sun for a little bit before the building was shading us! 

This time around Michael brought us each a pair of earplugs. Owen is very sensitive to loud noises and one year the garbage trucks, fire trucks and recycle trucks were quite generous with their horns and then the Seafair pirates have their cannon....it wasn't pretty. They must have had lots of complaints because this year was very mellow. The trucks did their horns, but only a couple times. Zeke got scared by the cannons, but that was to be expected. Personally I don't like them not because of the noise, but because they make the inside of my chest fell all funny! 

Handsome boy all ready for the sunshine! 

Can you see me? 

Owen was having fun photo bombing everyone! 

Future Gene Simmons! 

Michael got Ella dressed that morning and he specifically put her in a brightly colored dress so we would be able to spot her more easily! 

Zeke was driving me nuts before the parade even started with his up and down, up and down. Thankfully he was more content in Daddy's lap for most of the parade. 

Right before the parade started a couple Veterans came out and past out flags.

When the flags came down the street most everyone stood up and clapped! I'm so proud to live in America and so grateful for the people that have served our country. I might not always agree with policies and politicians, but I'm proud to be an American! 

This white horse was amazing...it was marching in a way that made it look like it was dancing. Very cool! 

I didn't really take all that many pictures. The parade is fun....I saw a few friends from school in the parade, but really it's all about the candy for the kids! 

Afterwards we drove over to our favorite parking spot...under 405! There are always spots and the best part....they are shaded! The big kids saw the hill that led down to the river and they were all about that. Yay for getting to check another thing off the Summer Bucket List....throwing rocks in a river! 

This hill was pretty steep and I was not going to let Zeke go down....we had just been at the ER we did not need to go back! 

Could he get any cuter!!! He still had his ER bracelet on! 

Then Michael pointed out that the hill on the other side of the bridge was better so we walked down that so he could play too!

Of course when we got down there the big boys needed to go potty in the bushes. They were pretty concealed from what we could see, but then when we went up to the bridge we could tell that probably everyone crossing the bridge saw them peeing in the bushes! 

Crossing the bridge! Notice...Zeke is walking! 

First stop at Renton River Days is always the noisy toy!

Then we wandered over to the free kid area and here's where I'm going to give you a little secret. This place is busy and there is absolutely no trees on this side of the park so shade is no where! However there is a tent right by the stage where the musicians play. Our friend played there a few years ago so we sat there and we were surprised that it wasn't full with people. I'm not sure if people don't want to listen to the music or what, but we walked right over there and it wasn't even half full. We listened to some Brazilian music and got to eat our lunch in the cool shade! 

After lunch the kids got to stand in line for the bouncy toys. This was them saying they wanted to go through the inflatable train obstacle course!   

One more run through and it was time to go. We needed to go meet a lady at MCD's in Seattle to buy a stroller for our trip to Disneyland. 

The worst part was when we were leaving we took a short cut behind all the food vendors. That was pure torture!