Rose Parade

As a little girl growing up my family would go see the floats up close before the parade started, be interviewed by KTLA channel 5 news and go into the 'white house'.  You see, my Step-Dad Mack's brother Mike was an attorney for KTLA and he also lived down the street from where the floats line up.  We would spend the night at his house on New Years Eve and get up super early.  I have very fond memories of this experience. After Mack passed away things changed and we stopped going to the Rose Parade.

This year we decided to take the kids and let them experience it!  The teenagers were excited about it the day before, but the morning of when we had to be out the door by 6:30 a.m. they were not too thrilled!  Luckily once we got there we had a great time!  The floats were all so beautiful!  We got to visit with a couple who were getting married on the Farmers float right in the middle of the parade, pose with performers and meet a few REALLY NICE HGTV host (Carson Oosterhouse and Nancy O'Dell).

One of my favorite floats with meaning was the Donate Life (not pictured).  On the float there were people holding pictures of a family member who lost their life and donated their organs.  Seeing these people up close and the emotions they were feeling was really touching.  

This float was made by some pet food company.  The neat thing about it was that one of the military personnel riding on the float just returned home from Afghanistan and was there to surprise his wife and son who did not know he was home!  It was really sweet.

Not sure the purpose of these two guys, but we all got a good laugh from them.  They must have been freezing!!  

Here are Nancy O'Dell and Carson Oosterhouse.  They were telling us all about the 2013 Dream home and how even though it is the smallest it is Nancy's favorite because of its location on an island off South Carolina.  Carson and Ryan were enjoying their conversation about a Celebrity motorhome show he just filmed.  Carson said some of these motorhomes were unbelievable!

After we were done looking at the floats we got some yummy breakfast and went home and took a nap!!