Pioneers, Parades and Peril

Last weekend we celebrated the hard work and sacrifices of the pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley by taking a day off work and stuffing our faces. As usual I took the kids to the parade on the morning of the 24th. It was plenty hot, and the nice lady in front of us put up a giant umbrella that gave her and her kids some great shade, and completely blocked our view of the floats and horse poop. She got a little irritated when my kids began to crowd around her, trying to see, but as you might imagine, I did nothin about it. Last year the parade started with an F-16 flyover. So many people complained about the afterburner that rattled windows and made little kids cry that they changed things up. Instead we were treated to a flyover from a KC-135 refueling tanker. It was somewhat of a letdown.

As you can see, Bean didn't really get into the parade...

Whitney was the only smart one, finding a shady area to watch the parade.

You may recall this picture from last year of Samantha enjoying the fireworks.


Contrast that picture with this one from this year, in which Patrick had to hunker down while Jeff tried to make the neighborhood look like a war zone...

As usual, Paul came to the barbecue at Alley's house loaded with glow in the dark toys for all of the kids. It was a great time, and no limbs or eyeballs were lost...this year...