Veterans Day Weekend

On Friday the kids were home from school since it was Veterans Day. I wanted to do something to commemorate the day, so we went to the East Valley Veterans Day Parade, in Mesa. It was great! The kids weren't super thrilled about the prospect of going, but within the first few minutes of arriving, this cool WWII bomber flew overhead and they were hooked.

There was a good-sized crowed lining the streets of downtown Mesa, and although we had to park pretty far away, we got a great spot.

There were several military vehicles in the parade, which the kids thought was pretty cool.

I teared up a few different times, but mostly at this point in the parade (below). Jr. ROTC squads from a few different high schools marched by carring banners that each showed a fallen soldier, which I assume were all from AZ. There were probably a couple hundred of them at least, that marched by. It was very poignant, and I couldn't help thinking about the families that these soldiers left behind.


The kids also really liked the high school marching bands; there were 4 or 5 of them in the parade and it was really fun to see/hear the drum lines.

After the parade, which was about an hour and a half long, we got some fast food for lunch. Then that afternoon we went to see the Lion King in 3D at the dollar theater. Since we don't have the Lion King on DVD my kids haven't seen it much, so it was almost like seeing a new movie -- and the redone 3D edition is fun.

On Saturday a pretty cool event happened; this old steam train came through town! It was the last steam engine ever produced for Union Pacific and was built in 1944 (I think). It stopped for an hour in downtown Gilbert, and then later stopped in Tempe and Phoenix. In this picture, that's the mayor of Gilbert dressed in the conductor's uniform, behind my family. Aaron took the kids to see the train, while I stayed home making applesauce (it was my annual applesauce day - 34 quarts this year!) Long after I assumed the train had left, I heard its whistle from my house (the tracks run right behind our neighborhood) so I jumped in the car and drove to see it, and I was excited to have gotten there in time to watch it leave and chug away to Tempe. It is MASSIVE! Really cool to see up close.

All in all it was a really fun weekend.