Happy Liberation Day...or

"What I wouldn't do for my daughter day". Harmony's Girl Scout troop participated in the Liberation Day parade that was held yesterday. ( Instead of celebrating the 4th, Guam celebrates Liberation Day when the US liberated them from the Japanese occupation). We knew that it was going to be hot. We knew we would have to wake up early. We knew we would have to sit on the sidewalk. (Mom can't haul chairs and a stroller...)All the kids were fine with it and wanted to go anyway. Except for Ivan who still wants to go and see fireworks.

Now if you are not local, this might not mean anything but...Harmony's troop was supposed to meet at a Mobil station ( across from the Govenors mansion) at 8:30. Then after the parade, we would pick them up from the Taco Bell in Agana shopping mall. When we drove down, the line up near the gas station was loooong. So Mom had the bright idea to park at Taco Bell, and walk down.

I didn't not think about how far that walk actually is. Someone told me over 2 miles. So we are walking as fast as we can to get down to the Mobil station. The kids are complaining the whole way, and I am trying to keep a smile on my face. I finally asked someone what time it was, and it was already 9. Harmony starts bawling. "We missed it and it's all your fault!" So I told her she had a choice, we could keep going and see if we could find them or we could turn around and go home. So she chose to go on. Well we get to Mobil (almost 9:15) and there is no one there. She is bawling again but I noticed all the floats lining up down the main highway. We saw someone I knew, so I left the kids, and headed down Marine Corp highway, to see if I could find it. I made it all the way down to Harley Davidson, before I finally turned around.I was hot, sweaty, sunburned (despite using sunscreen) and a little dehydrated.

We decided to sit near the governors mansion, and hope that she could hop on the float if we saw it. Since this was the beginning of the parade, I figured we had a pretty good chance. Well after an hour of watching the parade, the boys were ready to go home. They were hot and sweaty and wanted snow cones. Finally we look back into the mansion, and we see Girl Scout balloons. I had gone all the way down to HD only for them to be across the street! I ran her down and she hopped on. She smiled the whole way, and blew me lots of kisses.

After they had passed, the boys and I headed back down to the car. This time we took it nice and slow. Stopping for cotton candy and snow cones. We hit the drive thru and ended up waiting over an hour for Harm to get there. The boys didn't seem to mind and just sat in the a/c watching Justice League.

It was a loooong morning. I hope someday Harmony looks back and remembers all that I did to get her on that dang float. She probably won't though. She will probably remember it as the day that her Mom made her walk when it was really hot and she almost missed the parade!

On a different note...A long time ago Connor decided that he would like to join the Navy when he grows up. So his favorites were watching the different branches of the military walk by. He told me, "Now I really want to be in the Navy, so I can throw candy in a parade!" so much ambition....