The Suhling Family: Rosalia Battle Days Parade

This was our second year of attending the Rosalia Battle Day Parade, the girls have so much fun! Always something neat to see and lots of candy to pick up.

Elsie joined in on the fun of picking up candy. She got the hang of it really quick. She always wants to eat the candy the minute she gets ahold of it. I was surprised that she listened when I told her she needed to wait. Eventually I gave in and openned up a sucker for her.

Elsie and her sucker :) Love going back to Rosalia, my old stomping grounds from 4-6th grade, we even came back nearly every year throughout my high school/middle school years to visit our friends and neighbors in Malden.

After the parade had finished, we walked around to see all the activities going on. I even ran into an old friend. Fun. We then went to the little store there and bought a yummy salad and sandwich and headed to the little park. The girls were happy to go! We sat in the shade and ate, then went to the playground. We only stayed at the playground about 15 minutes because it was super hot and no shade. Still fun for the girls though.

Everytime I go back to Rosalia, I reminise about all the memories I have from that time frame in my life. Being at the store brought back all the memories of going there with my Dad to get their soda shop pops. Going to the park reminded me of all the memories I have of swimming the pool located there. We parked right next to the school, so that brought back tons of memories of all the times with friends. We drove around and up to another park that is at the top of the hill, it brought back memories of a rocket I made in class and set off there with classmates. We drove down a street up there and right past a good friends house that I stayed the night at all the time. As we reached the end of that street, Ruby was in heaven. Huge lilac bushes pushed their way into our windows of the Durango. I stopped and we both picked some, so fragrant! Love lilacs.

We drove down 195 to get to the parade, but drove back through Malden. This is where I lived, it is 6 miles out of Rosalia. I flashed back to the time when Katie and I were so bored in Malden and all we could do was think about how fun it would be in Rosalia with all of our friends. So....we decided to ride out bikes all the way into Rosalia. A long long trip in the beating sun, took us a long time but we made it. As I drove that far, it still seems pretty amazing that we were able to do it.

Once in Malden I drove around and told Ruby about all the places in the town. It is tiny, but I still had lots to show her and talk about. She loved hearing about it and looking around. We drove past our old house at the top of the huge hill, I told her about how I would ride my bike all the way down it. She was amazed. Then we drove on some back streets and down past the old caboose tavern and post office. By the way, our old house and the neighbor next to us are in such bad shape. It breaks my heart to see. My family did a lot of work on that house and it looked so neat, and our neighbors had the most beautiful house (they have passed away now) but now it is all overgrown and falling apart. I told Ruby about how my Grandpa Joe came to stay with us and walked Katie and I down to the Caboose Tavern. They used to open the window and sell things out of it. It was also still a tavern, but we stayed outside and my Grandpa bought us all UNO bars. Yummy! Our first time of having one, and a fun memory of my Grandpa. The Caboose is closed down now. The old post office reminded me of all the times I waited for letters to come my way from friends afar, it was always a surprise when one arrived. Loved that! We also drove past the old park that we used to play in, Ruby asked me if all the equipment was there when I used to live there. And.....basically it is all the same. We looked at the old church that Katie and I attended, there weren't any other kiddos so they decided to reopen the Sunday School because of us. Ah....memory lane! What a great experience and to be able to share it with my girls!

The following are pictures from our trip home through Malden: