4th of July Parade

Our friends David and Christine and their son David (he goes to preschool with Norah) invited us to the University Park parade. It was so.much.fun. We met at their house and the kids piled in the wagon and we made our way to the park and parade route. There was so much to do and everything was free: bouncy houses, lemonade, frozen yogurt, reptiles to pet (if you’re into that) and more. The parade was great too and Bryan and I couldn’t help but laugh at what a stark contrast it was to the Ithaca Festival Parade. A sampling of what we saw starting with the 10 commandments: There were more beautiful, old timey cars than I’ve ever seen in my life – total. Seriously, one after another, amazing.Then we lost Norah. She wondered off collecting candy that had been thrown in the street and Bryan and I each thought the other was watching her. As soon as we noticed we started walking up and down the street looking for her (assuming she was candy hunting) but when we didn’t quickly find her we started to panic. I had taken some pictures of her and started to show one to the Rotary club volunteers and Boy Scout leaders that were keeping the kids from running into the street. This boy scout with glasses in this picture below saved the day. He said “oh Yeah, I found her and just sent her with a City Official” and pointed me in the right direction. Norah was sitting on a chair with a lollypop and a bag of popcorn with two cops and a city employee talking to her. They were just getting ready to make an announcement. I don’t think Norah had wandered very far off but she was probably just looking at the ground and when she looked up everyone looked the same in their red white and blue and she just couldn’t see how to get back to where we were. I think it is pretty incredible that this Boy Scout Leader was able to notice Norah was lost so quickly. Way to go Scouts! Not so much us parents:( We felt a little less ashamed of ourselves after we heard a few lost child announcements. If you’re going to lose a kid, University Park is the place to do it. They are on top of things there.