perfect day for a parade

Ahhhh, four day weekends. Truly a blessing if you ask me. Don, the girls and I got a lot done, cleaning out the garage, getting yardwork done and making the basement bedroom liveable again. Sunday, Don preached, speaking on the biblical meaning to Memorial Day, and we had a bbq/movie night around the bonfire with a group of friends from church. We even celebrated Stephanie's 12th birthday a day early just for fun :).

We had a wonderful Memorial Day here in Michigan! It was actually *nice* outside, with a high of 82 degrees, if you can believe that. Heck, I have the sunburn to prove it lol. Granted, today is back to normal with a high of 50-something, but we won't talk about that again....

The fam all gathered at the Clements Family Targhee Sheep Farm, aka Aunt Linda and Uncle Bobby's, in the mecca that is Byron, Michigan. This is the second year that we have taken part in the Byron Memorial Day Parade. We all had such a fantastic time. Uncle Bobby bought and restored this old Chevy pickup truck, so the kids decorated it in red, white and blue streamers and stars, loaded it up with candy to toss, and off we went.

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We had to lined up by 1230 for the parade to start at 1 pm outside the elementary school. You will never see this many tractors or this much denim lined up at one time any place else, I can promise you that lol! There was the VFW, the Scouts, high school marching band, fire department, every farmer to be found within a 50 mile radius, motorcycle club, you name it, they were in the parade. It was huge and awesome!

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Here, you see the cousins Brandon Clements, the twins Gabrielle and Caitlin Frostic, Stephanie wearing Don's desert BDU's and his hat from his time in Desert Storm, and me, actually allowing a picture to be taken. Hey, it was far away, and I was delirious from the sunlight on my pale skin! Your town may have Blockbuster or Mammoth or Hollywood Video, but you most certainly do not have Byron Family Video! Aren't you jealous?

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This is a pic of my girls Sierra and Savannah and their cousin Brandon Clements. Too bad the kids weren't excited, eh?

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Downtown Byron. All on stop sign worth of it. Absolutely everyone in town was out to see the parade and enjoying themselves. If we could, we would move there tomorrow, to be closer to family and well, heck, Byron is just a nice little town. Before the parade, the streets were quiet, during the parade, it was music and laughter and candy and chaos, then when it was over, it was like no one was ever there. No garbage on the ground, no candy wrappers or cigarette butts. Just a nice 180 year old town. With sheep. Very cool.

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After the parade, we all headed back to Aunt Linda's, had a bbq and hung out for a while. The kids went mucking around the stalls, met the newest lamby addition to the farm, dug up sheep bones and hit a pinata. What more could a kid ask for??

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Now it is time to get back to normal around here, whatever that may look like. Good times with family never last long enough, that is for sure.

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I hope y'all had a wonderful Memorial Day, I know we did.

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