Gretna Days

This weekend was community days.  And this weekend was HOT!  Like heat index in the 108 F range hot.  We did get out & enjoy a few events, but missed quite a few because, lets face it, it was just too hot to sit & watch a "ta tuh" pull (tractor pull).  Even the petting zoo got canceled due to the heat!  There were SO many events going on to celebrate 125 years of Gretna history.  I'm glad to live in a small town with such a huge community days production... it will be SO much fun for the kiddos in a few more years. 

Saturday morning, Jeff ran in his first 3 mile run.  We thought it was a 5K, but technically it was just 3 miles {so something like 0.13 miles short of a true 5K}.  We are pretty proud of him!  The kids & I got up early to go cheer daddy on.  Getting 3 kids up early in the morning before any of us were ready to be out of bed & getting out the door takes a while, so we missed the beginning, but did get there in time to watch him finish in 25:59.  {I tried to snap a picture, but I'm slow & didn't catch it until 26:01.} 

 Daddy (in purple) after the race

 Watching everybody run & having a delicious breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch & milk

 Livi agreed with mom... this is too early!

Afterwards we had a yummy pancake breakfast at the church.  Went home, cleaned up, met up with Grandpa Tom & Grandma Candy & headed out to the parade.  It was a LONG parade, like 1.5 hours long.  Lots of things to see!  Lots of candy to eat!  The sun was only out for the last 30 minutes or so, so at least it wasn't TOO hot yet then. 

Hayden enjoyed helping G-ma & G-pa take Logan & Livi for a wagon ride while we waited for the parade to start.

He is strong.  He can actually pull them!

Our little Gretna Dragons!

 There was an airplane.  And one flying overhead too!

 Hayden is such a cheese-ball!

 There were lots of fire trucks, new & old.

 If you can see Logan & even a bit of Hayden in the background behind Logan's ear.... again this year we were not so fond of the fire truck sirens!!

 The coolest part was a beam from Ground Zero from 9/11!

 There were tractors.  Now they can all 3 say their own version of tractor.

 "Ta tuh"

There were lots of people handing out political stickers.  Who doesn't love stickers?  I think our kids were supporting every possible candidate at some point or another.  Even despite some of dads political views :)  And there was SOO much candy.  My favorite part was the people handing out WATER BOTTLES rather than candy!  Or maybe the flower shop who handed out Carnations to all the ladies!  How cool?!

Since the petting zoo was canceled & it was too hot to go watch the "ta tuh"s, we rather played in the water outside.  G-ma & G-pa brought us a new beach-ball-sprinkler, but we were all about the swimming pool today.  We were out of swim diapers, so we discovered just HOW much water a regular diaper can hold.  It was funny.  Their diapers got so heavy they could hardly walk & eventually they got so heavy they fell off!

Logan bouncing on the edge

 Hayden was a serious swimmer that day!  He jumped in over the edge on his belly like a belly flop & went down the slide face first!

 Livi was doing "1, 2, 3, jump!"  too.  She would stand there & say "two...two...two..." until I said "1, 2, 3, jump"  Then she would "jump" {as much as a 1 year old can jump} crash down in the water, exclaim "Boom!" then get up look at me & start again with "two...two...two..." waiting for me to say "jump!"  Silly girl!

Since G-ma & G-pa were in town.  Mommy & daddy even got a night out on the town.  We met up with some friends & spent the evening at one of the street dances. 

There were tons of events going on Sunday too, but we were all too beat from a busy Saturday & the heat to journey out & rather opted to just have a lazy day at home.  We had fun.  Hopefully next year won't be quite so hot!