A Parade... not what it used to be

A couple weeks ago, Cameron and I headed down with Ian and Allison to DC to see the younger siblings perform with their high school band in the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. Cam's parents were also there, so we made a weekend of it. I enjoyed the high school bands and the clowns and unicyclists. I even enjoyed the Chinese drum players and martial artists. However, it seemed to me that these very talented groups got very little recognition compared to the mediocre talent of the 'D' list celebrities who sang in front of the cameras. Not to mention the really bad dancers. Needless to say, we were happy that Timpview High School was first. We only stayed for about 30 minutes following that and decided to walk around enjoying the day instead.

Tess

These are for Mikey Matthews who is a clown in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They reminded me of him.

Like father like son. Cameron and his dad were running around all day doing audio and video of all the kids' performances.

Parker getting ready for the last performance of the day at Jefferson Memorial.

Nairn's first trip to DC. I think he had a good time.

Cameron loves the Cherry Blossom trees. They were actually on their way out, so we were glad to have seen the tail end of their blossoming glory.

Cameron and I stayed with my Uncle Richard and Aunt Beth who live in Alexandria. This is their 5 year old Rachel, who is adorable and loved Cameron... of course.

Cameron and Rachel playing. They did a lot of playing.

We went to Gettysburg as well and sort of tagged along on the tour the kids were getting by using our cell phones as walkie talkies. Cam's dad had his phone on and we had ours on speaker phone so we could hear all the history and facts as we drove behind the bus. Very clever. It's a very solemn place and hard to imagine the battle that took place there.