A REAL parade! (It was for the children I swear!)

Ok. Well not really. In all honesty, I couldn't have cared less if the kids liked the parade or not (they did) because I have never missed the Macy's day parade EVER. I *LOVE* to watch that every year on Thanksgiving, so when the opportunity presented itself to see one pretty darn close here in Chicago, I took it. Torrey and I took four of his kids and my two and off we went. We took a short drive to park the van then walked to the El Train. That was fun, it's a subway half the time and over the city the other half. Evan loved it. Then we got there and in spite of the cold and sort-of rain going on the place was PACKED. So we wound up sitting behind the glass that covered the escalator to the El entrance. It actually wasn't too bad, not great for getting pictures, but oh well. Still a decent view for the eight of us. That was a feat. (Not to mention RIGHT beside an announcement booth, so everyone stopped and performed *right* in front of us!)
We only lasted about 30 minutes before all of the hungry children had consumed mass quantities of the pretzels and graham crackers I brought...only problem? No drinks. So we wound up heading into Subway for a drink, a cookie and a bathroom break. (That was fun and tricky with all those snow pants...). Then right as we were leaving Subway we caught Santa! The very end of the parade literally as we walked out the door. Then we all headed home for lunch, and a quick nap before we all met up at our house for Thanksgiving dinner! (Shawn Shala,and Hope were at home cooking up a storm for all of us! Thanks you guys!)




Kira plugging her ears when the train went by. It was pretty loud. :)







Underdog. None of the kids had a clue. It made me smile though.




Ok, and Rocky and Bullwinkle? How cool is that? The kids didn't get it. ;)







These girls were super cute. They just carried their piece of plywood with them, then put it down and tapped their hearts out. Darling!

Onto Subway for our snacks:
The elusive Iris. I couldn't get her to look at me with my camera to save my life. Had to bribe her with a cookie. ;)