A Day and Another Day at Renton River Days

The Grand Mother and Grumpy had two memorable days at the River Days celebration. First we enjoyed the parade with Jim & Theresa and Grandson Lief with our Great Granddaughter, Miss Maple (Amelia). Of great interest to us was when our other Great Granddaughter, Abby, in Unit #42 appeared, shown here (see next photo) waving to her adoring crowd.

Of course there were all kinds of trucks in the parade; one had a big, spotted doggie that waved at the crowd ---

and scared poor little Amelia! Darned dog!! (I don't believe it was even on a leash. Grumpy had better talk to the Mayor about this!) Shortly, Amelia was sufficiently comforted to continue watching the parade. But also fortunately, her Daddy decided that enough parade watching had been enjoyed this day and they left before another, even bigger "doggie" (right down on the ground!), came along -- that surely would have disconcerted Miss Maple to no end.

Then there was dancing in the Park, too, with Abby being greeted by "her friend" who was one of the dancers. (Abby is a student in this dance group, but didn't appear with them on the stage this day.)

And the next day, being Sunday, who should the Grand Mother and Grumpy find but Mike and Jessie! We all went to the Park to listen to the Community Choir sing, followed by the Community Band.

At one point, the band director announced a piece by a Norwegian composer and asked the audience to "raise your hand and clap if you are Norwegian". Of course the Grand Mother vigorously raised and waved her hands and clapped eagerly. As a result, the director recognized her enthusiasm by dedicating the playing of the piece to her. (Grumpy thought that a true test of her "Norwegianality" should have been to see how many bowlfuls of Lutefisk she could eat at one sitting. --- We Germans sure got the short straw on this day!)

But Mike and Jessie seemed oblivious to all of these goings on. You can't tell whether they were enjoying the Community Choir and Band, or whether they even knew that there was music being performed at all! They are still very much in love, as one can tell.

Despite becoming very tired and even a little sore, the Grand Mother and Grumpy survived the celebration, especially appreciating the opportunity see and visit with some of our family in between parade units and park goings-on.