4th of July Parade

When you are in Utah Valley, the big thing to do the morning of the Fourth of July is to go to the parade in Provo. Karin and David were designated to save seats for David's side of the family (it's a family tradition that aunts, uncles, cousins, and so forth go to the parade), so we asked if they'd have room for us to join them. They were kind enough to let us join them. This parade is so well attended that people start saving spots the night before and early into morning. Crazy! Karin and David got up at 4 am to come save spots. Thank goodness for them!


We arrived a little bit before 9, when the parade was going to start, but since we were at the end of the parade route, it took awhile for the parade to get to us.

Initially, we got to enjoy the pre-parade - just some random people walking ahead of the parade. This included our local Jedi Knights, Storm Troopers, and so forth. Nothing says independence better than two Jedi Masters. I bet these guys went home and celebrated by playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Fortunately, we came to the parade with Cyn. She made sure we brought a cooler full of stuff to eat, including watermelon, grapes, and cinnamon rolls. Yummy! Here we are enjoying those yummy cinnamon rolls as we waited for the parade to start.

Now this is independence. The guy on the end is "My Brother Sam," one of Tom's favorite books. Those black powder guns are LOUD!

Here's Madison sporting her red, white, and blue braces.

This is Payden with her typical silly face for the camera.

One thing we love about Karin and David is that they LOVE playing with our kids. When they are around, the girls don't want anything to do Tom and I. Fortunately, David and Karin are good sports because the girls get a little crazy around them. Here they are attacking David.

Declan's favorite part of the parade . . . eating his favorite food - GRAPES. He really does a good job chewing with his front teeth.

While we waited, Declan decided to show us one of his new tricks . . . clapping.

It decided to rain on us a bit before the parade started. Here's Tom's solution . . .

Finally, the parade began. We got to enjoy the bagpipes, which are always fun to listen to.

Everyone loves seeing the big fire trucks.

Of course, no parade is complete without a beauty queen.


Our kids definitely enjoying making goofy faces for the camera.


I don't remember what this was for, but the girls loved it . . . of course.


Here is a couple of 'Joe Dirt' boys with their righteous mullets cleaning up the poop behind the horses.

A car made of copper. How cool is that!

Here's Ryan posing for the camera.

We had an enthusiastic crowd around us, and they always got the balloon people to spin around right by us.

I think this was about the only picture of Shelby.


The parade was during Declan's naptime, so I rocked and rocked and bounced and patted until finally he conked out. He loves looking at what's going on, so I have to cover his face to help him fall asleep.


Gotta love the Tongans and Samoans.


For some reason, the girls weren't that interested in the parade and decided the camera would be a fun toy to play with.



You can tell how much Jeremy enjoys parades . . .


There was a pretty loud and somewhat obnoxious guy next to us. He enjoyed throwing salt water taffy at the people in the parade (and actually hit a few of them). Fortunately, he didn't mind letting either Taylor or Payden take a picture of him.

Here are our kind seat savers. They ended up leaving early to go take a nap.

Tom decided to bring the 80's back.

Cyn decided to pose for Taylor to take her picture.



We are training our kids right. Without even being told, Taylor made sure to get pictures of the BYU trucks in the parade.



Again, thanks to the enthusiastic crowd we were able to get our ears blasted by the sound of this cannon going off. It was pretty awesome.


Great weather, good food, wonderful family, and fun parade made this an awesome morning. I love doing things like this as a family even if the kids didn't pay much attention at all. It was a great way to start of our Fourth of July celebrations.