4th of July Parade, Cape Cod Style

In a somewhat growing tradition, the various elements of the Brown family converged on Cape Cod for the 4th of July. My sister and her family were up for the entire week leading up to the 4th. Melissa, Abby and I arrived on the 2nd, and my cousin Jeff and his family came down on the 4th and 5th. And, of course, my Mom and Dad were host to all of us.

Frankly, the weather was not fantastic this year. The 4th itself was very cool with random rain showers. On the morning of the 4th, we went into town to watch the Orleans 4th of July parade. We have done this a few years in a row now, and it is a great little town parade. Everyone gets out the old cars, or shines up their company vehicles (you will never see dump trucks so clean!). Many organizations create floats (some more fancy than others) and hand out candy and popsicles to the kids. One of my favorite parade groups this year brought their dogs and dressed them in lobster costumes.

Everyone had fun at the parade. My cousin Jeff and his wife Sadhna's kids Vrinda (pictured above with my sister Wendy) and Rohan (who got to sit on a float while the parade stalled for 20 minutes due to a minor accident further down the route) had a good time at their first Orleans 4th parade. Abby sat in her stroller and napped a lot. Sarah (my sister's daughter) seemed to remember this gig from last year and was ready to receive treats.

Later in the afternoon, we all went over to the Bay beach near my folks house. Eventually, all the kids were in the water. This included Abby, who got her toes in the water for the first time.

Next year, we will be well settled into our new house in Falmouth (about 45 minutes away). Hopefully, we will be able to get Mindy and her family to make it from Toronto, ON to the Cape for the 4th. Having all 4 of the Brown grandchildren and the our associated children all in one place at one time would be great. We were able to do this at Christmas this past year (Abby wasn't born yet, of course) and it was very nice.