Ringing in the New Year

We arrived home on December 31st at 12:00pm with 3 extra hours to our day. We were able to unpack, grocery shop, unwind and get Sophi to bed early! Since we don't have tv we couldn't watch the ball drop this year, but that turned out to be ok since we ended up calling it a night at 9:00pm!

We were fortunate enough to attend the Rose Parade last year with my parents, which takes place right outside our door on Colorado Blvd. Sophi was little enough to sleep through most of it and we could all enjoy it!(Sophi last year at the Rose Parade)

This year we decided to just walk out right around the time it would be passing by our street and see what we could see before taking Sophi back in for a nap. (At the corner of our street, Harkness Ave. and Colorado Blvd.)

As luck would have it we walked up to the street to check things out right as the beginning of the parade was about to pass by. The people we were standing next to (who were sitting in chairs they had brought) offered us some of their extra chairs and voila, we had front row seats! (The blue line is the one that everyone had to remain behind to view the parade,

the pink shoes are Sophi's feet!)

These people had been camping out for over 24 hours and we had been out there no longer than 10 minutes! What luck!Each float is made entirely out of organic materials. It is absolutely amazing what all they can do with flowers, seeds, veggies and more!

Sophi loved watching the parade, "dancing" and clapping to the music and waving to everyone who passed by.

She was quite the crowd-pleaser and caught the eye of at least one person on almost every float who would wave and smile right at her. She even caught the eye of this year's Grand Marshall, Mrs. Paula Dean who waved right at her. I know I am biased, but how could you not smile at my sweet Sophi and her precious face?!We hadn't anticipated staying for the whole parade, which lasted about 2 hours, so were a little unprepared to handle a restless 15 month old, but despite her restlessness we all had a blast!

This will probably be our last opportunity to walk out our front door to see the Rose Parade and we feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to see it again this year! It is a special Pasadena memory that we will always cherish! Maybe one year when Sophi is older we can return to Pasadena and show her all the special experiences she got to have while living in California!

Here's to a great start to 2011!