Country Livin'

by Holly

I LOVE 3 day weekends!  This past weekend was no exception.  We kicked off the festivities with the Western Days Parade in beautiful Valley Center.  Now this is country living at it's finest.  My husband was raised there on an avocado ranch, and every year they parade VC's finest down the 1 main street in town.  I like to think I live in the country, but where I live is big city compared to VC.  The best part was that we got to spend a lot of time with our family.  My boys got to play with all their cousins and we all had a great time.

Of course we had to start the day with the local pancake breakfast.  Nothing like eating your breakfast in the parking lot of Ellie's Country Lace.  But they were seriously yummy pancakes, so NO ONE was complaining.  

The bummer part of the day was that the main reason for going to the parade is because my father-in-law drives one of his old cars in the parade with all the grandkids inside.  Unfortunately, his car broke down on the way to the parade so we had to settle for sitting on the sidelines this year.  Still fun!

We saw lots of horses, homemade floats being hauled behind tractors, school bands, firetrucks, clowns in busses (yikes), and all the local girl and boy scouts.  I didn't grow up here, but it is fun to watch my husbands family recognize and talk to many of the people going by.  They tell stories about how they know them and grew up with them.  Ah, small towns.



 And how can you not melt when you see this pretty one in her pigtails and pink cowgirl boots...

Next year I WILL wear cowgirl boots!!!  Gotta find some first, but I WILL wear them.











So, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I hope you got to spend some special time with your friends and family.  And I hope you got to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day.  For me, my weekend was summed up in this moment...

Simple, beautiful.  My boys carrying the flag to hang outside our house. Thank you to ALL of the men and women of our armed forces who work hard so that we can enjoy pancake breakfasts, pink cowgirl boots, and country livin'.  Happy Tuesday everybody!