Josiah’s First Parade – Mayo Style!

Grandma took Josiah with her to meet up with Uncle Jesse, Aunt Denise, Savannah, Aunt Star, and Nathan at the Mayo Pioneer Day celebrations on Saturday.  It was supposed to rain most of the day and I didn’t feel like dragging Elijah out in it, so we stayed home.  This was the first “first” of Josiah’s I’ve missed and I made mom take pictures (excuse the quality – sorry Mom).

This small town celebration’s main event was a parade followed by festivities in the park.  Apparently Mayo doesn’t do floats in their parade, but there were plenty of tractors, lawn mowers, trucks, people, and horses.  (I had to giggle a little about it when I saw the pictures.)  At any rate, Josiah loves those things and thought it was great!  Even better, they threw candy and beads and that made his day.  They even handed out chocolate milk in the park – another first for him.  Oh, and while it rained at our house the entire time, it didn’t rain a drop on them.

Don’t they look like they are having fun?  When Josiah is mezmerized by new things he is impossible to get to smile, even if he is loving it.  This is how he stayed the whole time.

 

This is my niece, Kiana, playing her sax.  I’ve never heard her, but they say she’s great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother, Jesse, loves his little boy nephews!  I love seeing my brothers dote on my boys.  Josiah loves Jesse and Elijah seems partial to Caleb.

 

 

I know Josiah must have loved the firetruck!

 

 

Not at all a good picture, but you get the point of a mesmerized kid with a mouthful of candy.

 

 

 

Apparently every year they have a couple as guests of honor to represent the pioneers.  I think they call them Granny and Pappy?

 

 

Smokey the bear…a family favorite in honor of Caleb.

 

 

A Mayo style parade…a gigantic cow, beauty queen girls riding on a trailer full of hay bales, a sheet-laden trailer carrying southern bells in hoop skirts, the “outstanding logger of the year,” and tractors and lawn mowers galore.  (While I think it is great, I did crack up a bit!)

   

Followed by celebrations at the park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom almost got a picture of Josiah on the slide :)

 

 

The story is that this girl just hopped on with him and he scooted to the far side and froze.  That’s my boy – stay away from those girls!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that night we took Josiah to Super Walmart, which was an adventure in itself, to let him shop for and buy a toy of his choice for doing such a good job not sucking his thumb.  He was so excited!  I realized that was his first time toy shopping and he was in heaven!  He made a good choice, then found a HUGE John Deere tractor that was pretty expensive.  We told him he could have that one when he totally stopped sucking his thumb (or for Christmas, whichever comes first – probably Christmas!).  Thankfully he left it behind with no tantrum.  Such a good little guy.  It was, however, the first and third thing out of his mouth this morning… “big tractor, don’t suck thumb.”

There were a couple other firsts happening that day, too.  Elijah got himself into the sitting position on his own for the first time.  Also, Josiah and Elijah got their first bath together now that Elijah is really good at sitting.  Funny thing…Josiah pointed out Elijah’s belly button and laughed.  Elijah looked down and realized he could see his penis (which he LOVES!  Am I allowed to say that word here?) and that just made his day.  I’ll have to get a picture soon.

Here are some random pictures from our first family hot dog roast complete with smores that we had the week before.  Josiah preferred to just eat the chocolate plain.  He loved it and ate one and a half hot dogs!  Poor Elijah just watched.

You would think that Josiah was mimicking Jacob here, but actually Jacob took this stance to be like Josiah.  And yes, Jacob is a fashion mess.

 

And just for fun…One day Josiah kept putting this placemat on the floor and putting these two guys on it, specifically on this side of the mat and in this order.  I’m not sure what was on his mind.  It took me several times of picking the fallen placemat up to realize I was picking it up from the same spot with the same toys each time and that it must be intentional.   Too funny!