July 4th Festivities

This year we went to the big July 4th parade in Provo. I usually try to avoid this parade because it is so crowded, so long, and so hot. But this year we were pleasantly surprised. We got up early to go to the Hot-Air Balloon show at 6 a.m. (ok, this was a disappointment. We had to fight a lot of crowds just to watch a few balloons float up into the sky - we won't do that again) but getting up early meant we got a great, shady spot to watch the parade on University Ave, and we only parked about a block away. Plus we were near restrooms - always good!

One thing that makes UT parades superior to the parades back home are the number of floats and high school marching bands. The year we went to a 4th of July parade in MI, we were supremely disappointed. The majority of parade entries were classic cars and random trucks decorated to advertise local businesses. We greatly prefer the floats honoring city pageant royalty, with Miss Small Town and her attendants dressed in matching sequinned gowns, smiling their pageant smiles and waving in perfect figure-eights. And any successful parade should have as many high school marching bands as possible, preceded by the sweaty flag-girl team made up of cheerleading wannabees with bad posture. This may sound sarcastic, but I am truly serious - I love these parts of a parade!





See how happy I am? That is because this year's parade was reasonably short (less than 2 hours) and shady.


That evening, my family all gathered at my parents' house for a barbeque. Mom had hosted a wedding in her backyard the night before, so we had a big tent to eat under. (Don't look at Jami - she is an embarrassment)