Happy 175th Birthday Wash, MO!

Several weekends ago we celebrated Washington's 175th birthday. 

 

Our fun was, once again, documented in photos.

 

These two had a great night at the kick off party for Washington, MO.  They were sporting buttons/ribbons that said "I am a lifelong resident of Washington, MO."  :)

Jeff and I enjoyed bidding on and purchasing several items at the auction to benefit the Washington Historical Society while the boys climbed on and pretended to drive the antique fire trucks.  

We had a front seat for the fireworks.  It was a huge hit with Tyler but took a while for Nathan to warm up to the loud booms.  Tyler's excitement helped him enjoy the second half of the show. 

 

This was our breakfast.  What says Wash, MO better than Schulte's Donuts?  And, yes, I am pretty sure one of my boys took a bite out of the donut and put it back in the box for later. :)

Tyler was very pleased with his own bag of donut holes and his Planes matching game.



Aunt Susan dressed as a school teacher from 175 year ago for the parade. 

Tyler and Nathan look up to my cousin Zach so much.  Zach and his friend were nice enough to let the boys sit by them before the parade started.  

 

We checked out the gorgeous Budweiser Clydesdales before they unloaded for the parade.

Main Street before the parade.

A plane pulling a banner that said Happy 175th Birthday Washington MO was pretty cool!

 

Warning: I took a lot of parade photos!  My kids were sitting down and had suckers and family members to entertain them so I actually got to use my camera. ;)

 

It was also probably the BEST parade I have seen in Washington with REAL floats.

Susan was hamming it up for the family!  Surprise, surprise! :)

My Grandma is in the pink.    I love the black tennis shoes with the outfit!

 

The City of Washington's birthday cake.  Too bad it wasn't real.  Grandma and Tyler said the only thing that was missing from the birthday weekend was some cake.

We do have great schools in Wash, MO!  We are so lucky!

I told you there were cool floats.   This one was too cute with the kids waving from the train.

These animals are truly amazing. 

Did you know it can cost as much as $40,000 to have the Budweiser Clydesdales make an appearance?  Crazy! 

 

Our parade watching crew.

Love him!

Tyler traded hats with Aunt Sandy and he was keeping track of his candy.

Someone handed Nathan some sunglasses.  Notice his shirt with sucker drippings all over.  I am pretty sure he had at least 4 suckers while watching the parade.

No parade would be complete without the band.

I told my boys not to get any ideas.

They even had a harmonica club playing in the parade.  I have never seen so many different size harmonicas. 

The Bubble Bus was a huge hit!

 

 

The volunteers in this town make it amazing!

 

This photo was minutes after we left the parade so it was home to take naps and eat lunch (for those who were able to stay awake). 

Nathan was not so excited initially about the bounce houses. 

Tyler, on the other hand, was in all of them.  He found his friend Olle from school and they had so much fun playing together. 

 

Nathan finally warmed up and played in this particular bounce house with Tyler.  The problem was he just sat at the top of this slide.  The only way he would come down is if I went up and held his hand.  It wasn't pretty to see me climbing up this large inflatable slide to get down a sassy two year old. 

Train rides were up next!

Nathan rode the train at lease half a dozen times. 

 

Aunt Jeanne captured this sweet face and it was in The Missourian!

 

While Nathan continued to ride the barrel train, Tyler was in another bounce house. 

And to think that Tyler used to be my cautious one...

 

Tyler was having a blast!

 

If you are still reading, that finally sums up our celebration of Washington's 175th birthday.  It was a pretty fun party!  We love living in this small town that has so many great qualities, my favorite of which is the PEOPLE!