May 27, 2013

Memorial Day 2013


Memorial Day 2013
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 27, 2013


On Friday night, I fell asleep on the couch watching TV.  When I woke up early Saturday morning, these two strange ducks were staring down at me.  I literally took this picture from where I slept in my house.  I think they were watching me sleep.  Probably because they were about to get busy and didn't want me to disturb their privacy.


On Monday, another one of our favorite visitors stopped by our backyard to see us and steal the food we put out for the birds.  Long time readers of my blog will know that I had never seen an albino squirrel in my life before my twin sons were born.  Then they started showing up all the time and we especially noticed them whenever one of our boys had to have heart surgery or were enduring another scary trial of life.  We've always considered them their guardian angels.  Thirteen years and a second house in a different city later, we still have albino squirrels showing up in our yard every summer.  They make us smile.


Memorial Day arrived and once again Luke and Avery had the honor to march in the Prior Lake Memorial Day parade.  For several years they've participated with the scouts, but this year they had the chance to go with the Middle School Marching Band!  You can see Avery waving on the right side of the photo.


Our long winter just won't leave us as we had to sit in the rain and endure temperatures in the fifties.


Eventually, our friends Mark and Heidi Wojahn arrived and so we told Grandma Linda she couldn't sit with us any more.  I'm sure she didn't mind.


The parade started and we all stood to pay our tributes to the men and women who gave their lives in service to their country.


Eventually the band walked by.  I wasn't able to get a picture of Avery because he was on the other side of the street from me, but I was able to snap this photo of Luke playing the cymbals.  For some reason, he wouldn't look at me.


Suddenly the band stopped so I ran down there to get my boys to pose for a picture.  For some reason, I could never catch Luke's attention, but then I noticed something else did that made him laugh.


I looked over and saw this cute dog had broken ranks from his family and ran out to see his big sister playing the clarinet.  He didn't want to leave either.  He rolled over on his back until his dad came out and carried him away.  I now see why Luke was smiling.


Before the presentation began, I ran over to where Avery was standing to get his picture.  I think he was pretty glad to see me!


Then the flag was raised in honor of those who gave their lives for our country and the service was set to begin.


It was a cold, rainy morning, but the audience sat in respectful silence as the speakers shared stories of servicemen and women who gave their lives for the United States of America.  As they read the names of the fallen, I was amazed by the number of people that gave their lives just in this small section of the country.  We should all be thankful to our service people for the sacrifice they made for our freedom.

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