Happy Memorial Day!

With Pierce being your typical 3 year old, aware of his surroundings, and always asking "why?", it would only be natural for him to want to know why we were going to spend our day marching TWO Memorial Day parades. As we drove to the first parade, we passed a few graveside ceremonies, and
he asked why they were there. I explained that today is the day we say thank you to all of the men and women who are out fighting to keep us free. Sometimes they have to go to Heaven to make sure that people stay even more safe. 

He simply replied, "okay", and we continued on with our drive, dancing away, and talking about his stinky feet. As we arrived to our destination, Carter noticed the army trucks and was simply yelling, "truck!"  Pierce wanted to know why they were different, so I explained they were army trucks. Again, the conversation ended at that, and we walked up to the beginning of the parade. 

Across from the start of the parade were soldiers in full gear, a robotic soldier, and a convoy of trucks. Pierce had me scoop down and said, "mommy, why do we thank them?  They are not in Heaven."  I thought carefully about my answer, and replied, "we should thank them since they give up everything to keep us safe. Some of them go away for a year or more at a time.  Would you want somebody to thank Daddy for giving up everything, and being separated from you for a year?"  

Without skipping a beat, he grabbed my hand and told me we had to walk across the street. And we need to thank them. Now. This was after he had already yelled  "thank you army" and before he even wanted to know why we were thanking them. I was so proud of Pierce as he walked over. He walked right up to a group of soldiers that were working on the robot and said, "excuse me gentlemen. Thank you for working so hard and keeping me safe. Thank you."  One of the soldiers looked astounded, and said to him, "no, thank you for treating us the way you just did."  And that was it. He wanted to go back to the drums, and we went back across the street again. I'm not going to lie, my heart became a little soft as I heard the conversation taking place. Just the pure innocence of a preschooler and the fact that he understood. It astounds me. 

We had a great rest of the day, and both boys hitched rides on our backs for the parades. During the ceremony after the second parade, Pierce stood in the color guard so proudly and seriously, holding onto the stuff for the musket. He thought it was the coolest job ever. 

After driving for over 3 hours, and liter sitting for 35 minutes, we came home and the boys were so happy to see daddy. So we had a little family time at Nysyrom's pond, watching our children jump off a little rock into the water. This was a perfect day for the boys and I. And this is certainly a Memorial Day I will not forget. Ever.