Hoedown!

On Friday night, Ro’s school held a “Hoedown” for all the students.  Not only did this afford an opportunity to don the overalls gifted to her by Grandmama and Papa Stan, but Rosalie also got to go to a night-time, traveling PETTING ZOO.  

 Yes, there was barbeque, there was music, there was a lovely night-time freedom of running around with your friends.  But most importantly, there were baby bunnies to be cuddled and petted while sitting next to your best friend.  What a great time.

IIIIIII love a parade...

I was so impressed with our school's principal, who, counter to the school district's superintendent's original dictate, decided to excuse any absence of students whose parents chose to pull them from school to attend Seattle's parade to celebrate the Seahawks yesterday.

So we did it!  Ro and I drove in to work with Michael early in the morning, and we hung out at his office until it was time for the 700,000 person event.  It was freezing, insanely crowded, and remarkably happy, civil, and positive.

Our friend Kevin Tamura saw us from across the street and took a picture of Rosalie & Michael. I am not pictured, of course, because I'm shorter than Michael, but I was there.

 
Although the parade started an hour later than expected, and although we couldn't feel our hands and feet by the end of it,  I thought it was a wonderful experience.  We spoke with many friendly people standing near us and had some nice conversations with them.  Rosalie, although looking pained in this picture from the eternal wait, was actually quite patient and extremely well-behaved.  Michael was strong as can be, carrying that kid on his shoulders for the bulk of the time.  Once the parade actually began, the joy in the city was palpable.  Roaring and cheering.  It was a monumental swelling of pride and happiness, from a group of people even larger than the population of the city (about 634,535 as of 2012), all crowded along one street downtown.  Amazing.