76 Trombones

There are pros and cons with everything. This includes having children.  Prior to having kids, it seemed near impossible to be somewhere by 9 am on a Saturday morning.  Why would I want to wake up that early? Even if I did, I would stay in my jammies, relax, and be lazy for a while.  I am a night owl.  My ideal hours would be bedtime around 2 am, wake up around 10 am.  Or noon.

Thanks to having kids, I saw my first OSU Homecoming parade this year.  Planning goes into everything around our house, and if it doesn't I'm usually frustrated.  All week long, I had mentally been planning out the morning so that we could get to the parade in time. Matt is training for a marathon, so he went on a 2 1/2 hour run and I had the responsibility of getting the other 3 of us ready before he got home. Sucess! When he got home, we greeted him in the driveway wearing our bright orange shirts.

Here is a rundown of the parade from 4 perspectives:

Matt
Man, my legs are sore from running. Baden, can you stand by yourself for a minute so my legs can rest?  Man, my legs are sore.  Yep, those are airplanes. We should have brought some chairs.  Next year we should bring chairs. My legs are sore.  There's Bullet. Oh, there's Bullet again. Baden, let's sit down so daddy can rest his legs.

Kember

Let's park here so we can walk by Aspen and I can get a drink on the way to the parade. We'll just stand on the corner by Aspen to watch. Oh shoot, the line is to the door. Let's get a place to stand and I'll go get a drink later. The line is still to the door.  Baden, smile so mommy can get a picture. Matt, do you think it's ok that I'm standing in the landscaping? I want to be able to see. Matt, can I have the camera again so I can take another picture?  Oh good, there's a pause, I'm gonna go get a latte now.  Man, this drink is good. Matt, smile so I can get a picture of you and Baden at his first parade. Can you take a picture of me and Ryder?

Baden
Airplanes! Fly high. Up in the sky. More airplanes. There's Bullet! Me really, really like Bullet. More Bullet. (pouting). Look, more Bullet (as more horses march by). Drums, really really loud. Me like Bullet.  Big truck. Sirens loud. Sirens scare Ryder.  Lawnmowers go fast.  Motorcycles. More Bullet. Me really really like Bullet.  Oh, horse poop. Poop, daddy.

Ryder
Man, I'm tired. Ready for a nap. I'm all snuggly in the carrier that mommy is wearing. She sure is hoping I'll take a nap. BOOM BOOM BOOM (drums) CLANG CLANG symbols. WHOOO WHOOO (sirens) BOOM BOOM BOOM (more drums) This parade sure is loud.  Hey, what's going on out there? Mommy, can you turn me facing out so I can see all the action? ORANGE!!! Why is everyone wearing orange? Oh good, mommy dressed me in orange too. And put my OSU bib on. I really like chewing on my bibs.  Oh, horses. There's Bullet! Man, this parade is really loud. 

There weren't 76 trombones, but there were a lot of bands. The parade really was good. We all enjoyed it. On the way to the van, we asked Baden what his favorite part of the parade was. His response, "the end".