24th of July

The 24th was traditional. 7am breakfast in the Vernon Worthen Park with the St. George East Stake, P-raid and carnival in Washington from Washington Utah Stake. Every year that I can recall the St. George East Stake does a morning breakfast on the 24th along with pioneer games for the kids. It's a great way to start off the day. Joel's Dad is in the Stake Presidency so we didn't feel too much like outsiders going this time, even though Joel grew up in that ward and we lived in that ward for 7 or 8 years ourselves.

After breakfast and chatting with old friends, we came back to Washington to hurry and get the kids on the float and head to our spot on the parade route. We ALWAYS sit on the grass in front of the post office. That way everyone knows, especially the kids, where to find us. The parade was short this year and our kids where right in the middle of it. David and Ben road on the "Float" and Josh and his friend Logan Scoresby rode there unicycles. They were great clowns. They had squirt guns and had a fun time.

I put FLOAT in quotes because they are really just a trailer or a flat bed truck with some decorations on them. Which is great don't get me wrong but I grew up where it was a MAJOR deal to have the best ward float. We would start in January to get ready for the end of June Round up parade. They were amazing, breathtaking and incredibly unique and creative! I am going to look for some old pictures. I know Paula has some pictures of recent years since she and my cousin Melissa have done some of the best ones I've seen.

After the p-raid we went across the street to the park for some carnival games, food and entertainment. Each ward is in charge of 3 booths. Our Young Women were in charge of the Cake walk, the Young men were in charge of the tossing games and our High Priest were in charge of doing scones which I didn't understand because it was 105 degrees. Who'd want a hot scone in that heat? Anyway, the boys had fun getting a bunch of prizes and doing all the games. Ben even did one of the races. It was a lot of fun and a great tradition that we will carry on and on and on.