Oh yeah. We kick public schooler's backsides. Not that the marching band didn't sound good, but we were pretty awesome, too.
WARNING: Long-ish recap to follow.
The parade did indeed go swimmingly, as Bunnylady predicted. Max, Ashton, Emma and I met up at the corner of the park, then killed time for about ten minutes waiting for Kody and Sgt. Reed to show up. (They had car trouble, so were running just a little behind.)
Then we all headed down to the parade start, and stood there and killed some more time. Envied the cheerleaders because they got to wear shorts and t-shirts. Laughed at Kody when he said very seriously that he would much rather wear his uniform. Felt sorry for the marching band because they had to wear black. Accepted handshakes and free chocolate.
At 4:00 on the dot we lined up behind the patrol car and unfurled the flags, (Ashton carried the American flag, Max carried the POW-MIA flag, and I carried the Missouri state flag) and at three after the hour (it's the town tradition to start the St. Patrick's parade at 4:03) Ashton, Emma, Sarge, Max and I headed down the street between the patrol car and fire engines. Kody took Sergeant's Suburban to the end of the parade route and waited for us there to retire the colors.
The marching was very uneventful, and I did NOT loose my hat this time!
So then we turned off of the parade route, retired the colors, Ashton took off to make it to her basketball game on time, and the rest of us took the flags back to the Suburban and met up with our parents, joking about death by heat stroke the whole way.
A very good day.