Today was hot and sticky. Line up for the parade took a long time. The march down the route was not at the top of the list on a Sunday afternoon for a 12 year old boy, though he did not complain.

"He doesn’t have to do this,” I sympathized to his mother with my grandma heart.

She quickly retorted, “This is part of being a family. He’s just fine.” And he was.

My heart sings. We are so blessed. I love the way my children are raising their children.

We are so proud of our kids and grandkids for oh-so-many parade footsteps. Each one has done their time in the last 20 plus years.

Before the King ran for office, we regularly helped other candidates, traveling all over northern Minnesota, so much so that our kids thought every family did parades on weekends.

We feel that if you believe in a cause or person you should be willing to stand up and do something about it, and we chose to actively support people running for elected office. It was a good experience for our children. They met new people, saw new places, and scooped up lots of candy at the end of each parade.

They marched through wet snow flurries in Eveleth in July, followed innumerable bag pipe units (our favorite!), passed out tens of thousands of stickers, explored Gooseberry Falls on the way home from a parade in Grand Marais, discovered great back roads when son Dan mapped the route home from Effie. And that’s just a snippet.

They raced on rollerblades, scooted on scooters, rode bikes and were pulled in wagons or pushed in strollers. They carried flags, wielded signs and perfected the parade wave.

They sported t-shirts emblazoned with the names of men who would become senators, governors and presidents.

They learned issues, patriotism and civics.

And we had/have fun.

When good people run things, everyone is glad, but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans. Proverbs 29:2