Grand Floral Parade

Saturday was the Grand Floral Parade in Portland. Joel's family used to go every year, but the last couple years, a lack of interest has kept the family from going. This year, a bunch of the family decided it was time to start going again and Shawn & Tom agreed (much to our delight) to go down early and back their pick-up trucks up to the parade route on a side street.



Joel's parents came and picked up the boys at 8:30 and Joel and I took Olivia over to the hospital to have my platelet count done to see if the single dose of Dexamethasone I took Thursday worked for me. It did! My platelets were 67,000, so we busted out of there and got to our parade spot just in time for the parade to start! (If my count had been 15,000 or less, I would have had to stay and have a round of IVIg.) I didn't get a lot of pictures (corralling three kids on a busy street with hundreds of other people around doesn't make for an excellent picture taking situation), but here are the few that I did get! The boys had a blast! They got to play with their cousins, eat donuts and hot chocolate, play with sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles. It was a fun time and after Hunter got up from his nap, he asked me "Can we go back to the parade, please, please, please, please, Pleeeeeeease??" Too cute. Also, Hunter, Jasmine & Kaden all made it on the Channel 2 news (http://www.katu.com/news/19631794.html)!



Joel and I have been talking about things that we can do as a family that will be the start of traditions for us. Last year we took the boys to the circus and decided to make it an annual outing and the parade is for sure something else we want to do. I love my family!