We took the kids to the mall to have their picture taken with Santa. Abby was the only one that walked up to him w/o a problem. The only way we could get Troy to be in the picture was if we let him sit on Abby's lap. And the only way Ashlin would be in the picture was if we let her hold Gunnar. So here it is! I can't say I blame the kids, this Santa was young, ethnic, and had NO expression. Plus he was wearing a fake beard. He was kind of creepy. I guess that explains why there was no line on a Saturday afternoon!
Later that night was the Annual Montrose Christmas Parade! I marched in it when I was a kid, so it's a lot of fun to take our kids now! It's so fun to see our little community come together for this fun event! Before the parade we went to part of Grant's soccer game in La Canada. Then I brought the kids home, parked the car and loaded them up in the stroller. Troy was fast asleep, and didn't even budge when I put him in the stroller. We walked to Landry's where our friends, The Roberts, were saving us seats! It's about a 10-15 minute walk up a fairly steep hill. He slept the entire ride!
We're lucky he didn't whack his head on a tree, or something, the way he was lying in the stroller!
The Jahnke's sit in front of The Paper Rabbit every year. Here's Danny holding Gunnar and his son Parker (born just a few weeks before Gunnar!).
Cute little Santas!
After the soccer game, Grant hurried home and ran up to meet us just as the parade was starting!
Troy finally woke up!
The football boosters game the kids these fun glasses that light up! The kids loved wearing them!
Troy loved the fire engines and horses, the girls loved the dance groups and seeing some of their friends marching.
I think that's a million dollar bill that Abby is holding. Some sort of advertisement that was passed out!
A little ways in to the parade I noticed Troy was poopy. Grant agreed to change him. So I told Troy to go to dad to have his diaper changed. Just as Troy started walking over to Grant, Grant and I bent down to look for the diapers in the stroller. When we stood up again, Troy was gone. A family sitting behind us said they thought he headed East. So Grant and I started walking East, Grant on the sidewalk, and me in the street among the crowd. After a few hundred feet I figured I better make sure we were headed the right direction and that the other kids were being watched. So I went back and asked this nice family that was sitting with us to watch the girls and Gunnar. The mom verified Troy's name and what he was wearing and she and a friend went West while her husband stayed with the kids. I asked the family again which way Troy had gone, and they said they were certain they saw him go East. So I started going back that direction and met up with Grant and Troy half way down the block. Grant said he had made it to Rocky Cola (for those of you not familiar with the area, we were sitting near the corner of Ocean View Blvd. and Rocky Cola is located an entire city block away at the corner of the street). He was in the arms of a man who said that Troy "just had that look". So thankfully he had picked him up before he continued on his travels (poopy diaper and all!). As soon as I found them, I rushed back to our seats to let the others know Troy was okay while Grant took Troy to the bathroom. When I got back, and told them he was okay, one of our new friends just started bawling. It was so sweet of her to be so concerned for a complete stranger. I was definitely nervous about finding Troy, but as I was searching I kept praying for his safety and knew that we would find him. I know that the Lord was watching over my boy and sent angels, like that man who picked him up, to keep him safe.
After the parade a girl from our ward walked home with us to babysit the kids while we went to the ward Elder's Quorum party. It was a crazy night!
