Well, being the good Irishman that I am, I couldn't ignore the holiday. So, I did a little research and found out that there is a big St. Patrick's Day Parade in a town about 30 miles from here called New London. However, they officially change the name of the town once a year to New Dublin.
The parade started at 1pm, which was perfect because we could eat an early lunch at home and then head out.
Justin wanted to document that we ate Irish inspired food for lunch. We had leftover shepherd's pie and potato soup. It doesn't look as tasty in the picture as it really was.
Garytt is ready to go!
Garytt took a nap on the way to the parade, which was awesome because I think it gave him the energy to stay awake and happy for the whole parade.
Having never been to this town, I didn't really know where to go but we just started following cars when we got close to the town. And we parked a few blocks from the parade route. Here you see Westyn and I walking towards the parade...check out my festive scrub top...keeping all those old scrubs comes in handy at the holidays!
We found a shady spot slightly away from the street. It was great to have some shade because I was worried about too much sun exposure on Westyn. (The picture doesn't really look like we are in the shade though.)
We arrived just a few minutes before the parade was about to start. Our location was near float 10, so we missed the first few floats of the parade but there were well over 100 floats, so we didn't miss much. I wanted to take a picture with me and the two boys...can you tell Garytt is way more into the parade than taking a picture?
We did manage to get a picture of Garytt looking at the camera here.
As the floats and bands started lining up, we realized we were right by the bagpipers.
We even got to hear them warm-up a bit before the parade actually started.
Garytt watched intently.
As the parade started, we realized that Garytt really didn't have a very good view since we wanted to stay back in the shade and not right along the road. So, he got to watch the parade from Justin's shoulders.
There were a number of fun performers and floats in the parade.
Unicyclist
Garytt loved the big truck!
He couldn't take his eyes off the big yellow truck!
Fun float
One of several bands.
Garytt loved the tractor too!
Crazy green men
This lady looked like she was having a ball riding in the cement truck!
Home of the free...because of the brave!
Stilts!
Creepy clowns
Garytt really took it all in!
Clapping for the band
Enjoying the parade
Can't take his eyes off the parade even when dad turns around
Love the shots from the back.
Here is a video of Garytt clapping along with a band...he loved the music.
We did have a few favorites along the parade route. First, the Shriners had quite a few entries. The first one was really cute...they had people dressed up as police officers and were putting kids in a jail truck. Then of course, they had the Shriners driving the little cars, which is always funny.
We also enjoyed seeing the little girls from the local Irish dance studio. Adorable.
I even managed to get a brief video of them...bouncing hair is mostly what you see.
There were several floats that had bubble makers on them. Those were a big hit with Garytt. He does like the bubbles!
By far, the best performer was this crazy guy!
We definitely had to get video of him!
Towards the end of the parade, Justin was getting a bit tired of holding Garytt on his shoulders...there were well over 100 floats as I mentioned. So, he put Garytt down and he started to dance to the music. It was so cute but the Flip Video batteries died just before that, so we only have some still pictures.
Although the parade wasn't quite over, we were all getting tired. So we decided to head out a bit early. I wanted to try to get one more picture with me and the boys.
Westyn spent the entire parade asleep...I guess it is pretty comfortable all snuggled up next to mom! When we got back to the car and put him in his car seat, he woke up, of course. He was making the funniest faces!
Sticking his tongue out in the direction of his brother...probably not the last time we will see this look!
Me?? I didn't do anything!
Whatever!
When we got home, it was definitely time for Garytt to take a nap! He didn't take a nap on the way home, which surprised me since I know he had to be tired.
I was actually out running a quick errand when Garytt woke up from his nap. When I arrived back at the house, I found Garytt dressed like this...
Apparently, when he woke up from his nap, he had a little issue that didn't get completely contained in his diaper...it has been quite a while since he had an issue like this...and Justin was nice enough to completely change Garytt out of his dirty clothes, but left the clothes and the sheets for me to finish cleaning up...yay mom!
Anyhow, it was too cute to see him playing in a t-shirt and diaper, so I took a few pictures.
Garytt really wore himself out playing outside. He ended up getting on the deck and just laying down...apparently, he was all tuckered out!
We had a great St. Patrick's Day!
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