Another Year!

Gotta love the rose parade! It's a Papavero tradition. We've been every year since before I was born. It was so much fun this year taking the Dyl, we were sad that Daddy had to work (brace yourselves, this is a long post on his behalf since he's all alone in freezing Michigan) but the parade sure was a blast. Dylan LOVED the marching bands, I think they might have been one of his most favorite parts, other then the three train floats and the man on stilts (that last part will make more sense in a minute.) He hung out with his cousin Elly, who absolutely adores him, and had the time of his life.

Here's the Papavero girls, me, Bri, Megan and Brayds. Being with family is one of the best parts of this annual tradition. Braydee and Bri were the troopers who staked out the spot starting at 4 am two days before the parade, Bri even slept out over night with her cousins. You gotta be die hard to get our awesome spot every year.

Dylan with the balloon his Aunt "B" spoiled him with (Braydee). He sure got a lot of attention on this trip. Aunt "Ba - pronounced Buh" (Brianna) hooked him up with one of his new favorite drinks...Sunny Delight - (yuck!)

Brayds and her latest and greatest boyfriend, Jeff capturing the true essence of the parade madness. They block off the streets and it's a giant free-for-all where the kids roller blade around shooting silly string and playing football etc. in the middle of the road.

Here's one of Dyl's favorite floats cruisin' by. He of course stood up and started shouting "Choo Choo, Choo Choo!" at the top of his lungs followed by "Wooooooww..." as it rolled by. It was a cute circus train with little circus performers running along side it doing tricks and stuff. There was also a man who walked the whole route on stilts. He was so cute with Dylan.
He walked across the street to Dylan and stood in front of him, Dylan stood up and reached his hand up towards the guy so he bent over and touched Dylan's hand...it was so cute!

The parade stopped for a second so the girls grabbed Dyl and ran up to take a shot next to a float. It was hard to get Dylan to look at the camera because he was so distracted by the huge float right behind him.

Miss Aisley Kay sure enjoyed the parade too! She is such a smiley baby. Here she is with her mama and daddy (my brother, Brandon).

The marching bands really are one of the best parts of the parade. They usually get really into it and some bands even dance while they play, it's very fun to watch. I thought Dyl would like it but might be a bit hesitant about the loud drums and stuff but he didn't mind at all, he got up and danced every singe time.

After the parade Bri had fun showing Dyl how to blow Elly's annoying trumpet that she got at the parade. Dylan thought it was so funny to blow in it, then put it up to Bri's mouth and have her do it really loud. What a good aunt. We all know how long those fun "games" usually end up lasting...she was a good sport though.

And finally...I just couldn't leave this guy out, for reasons that I am sure are obvious to all of you now that you've seen his picture. It was the perfect way to end this blog. No matter how energetic he looks in this pic, it seriously doesn't fully convey to you how over the top this guy was. You would think maybe that he was doing some cool tricks with those hoops or something considering he was with the circus float with all the jugglers and acrobats and clowns and people performing pretty cool stuff but...nope. This guy just kept jumping with pointed toes, not even out to the sides cheer-leader style which is semi-impressive. No, he just jumped up in the air with his rings held out to either side. THAT'S IT. And he was SO excited about it, I mean you would seriously think by the look on his face that he had just swallowed fire or something amazing. He was by far my favorite, and you have to admit it is a pretty amazing picture considering he was getting ready for another HUGE jump. Gotta love the rose parade. HAPPY 2008!!!!