Pride 2011

Julie works for New York Life here in Tampa and this year NYL wanted to participate in the St Pete pride parade. It is the biggest one in the state of Florida. I actually took the girls to it two years ago (Julie was working) with a friend of mine from Orlando. The girls had a good time and there were about 15-20 protesters. I thought that wasn't too bad for Florida. I was pleasantly surprised to see only like four!

So this year the girls, Julie and I (and some of her coworkers) were IN THE parade! It was a load of fun. We all "bedazzled" the jeep and Julie drove it. The girls had a great time throwing candy out (at) to the crowd. At one point Emerson was walking and she was going upto any kid on the parade route and gave them candy. If there happened to be a mud puddle on the way to the child ALL THE BETTER!

When Julie told me we were going to be in the parade my first question was, "Do the girls need to be in car seats?" Julie thought they needed to be in them I thought otherwise. I mean the vehicle would not be going faster then 2 miles an hour! Turned out I was right...but I was wishing I had those darn things at the end!

At the end of the parade they make the people who are walking go one way and the cars go another. I was walking (along with all the other NYL people and Julie and the girls were in the Jeep. Thankfully I managed to follow behind the Julie and hop into the Jeep. The route was kind of twisty and turny do it was not a straight shot back to the staging area and it was a long route. To make matters worse Avery and Emerson were DONE with the parade by the end. So now Julie is not knowing which way to go, I am trying to tell her which way to go. Avery is crying that she wants to go home. I tell her we are going to go home and she cries that we cant get home this way....she was tired and hungry! Poor baby!