Our 24th of July Parade on the 26th of July

Every year we go to St anthony to the pioneer day parade. I took lots of pictures because this is one of the premier parades in southeast idaho. We truly love this parade and hope it always continues.

The ColorgaurdLots of military trucksand tanks. They shot taffy out of the gun.Our county vehicles including firetrucks, ambulances, search and rescue and anything else that they could throw in the mix. And all with their lights and sirens on. Lots of excited children when this came by. This year's theme. In God We TrustA veteran' s float.Ashton's Jr. Miss Arleigh Grube and attendants.The Hispanic community put this one together. It was so cute. Lots of little senoritas and muchachos dancing and looking sweet by a cute little pueblo type casa. " Su casa es mi casa." The Farm Bureau Float or should I say "swarm."I told you that they had ordered thousands of chocolate milks to hand out and they were running back and forth with crates and had little children mobbing them. Alan and his crate of milk and eager beaver kids.The air conditioned rhino that costs $16,000. Someone got to drive this from Farm Bureau and I think it held drinks and snacks for the Farm Bureau milk handers outters.Zack was on the other side of the semi so I had to run out into the middle of the street with all the wild children and I snapped this great picture of his shoulder.The Americanas. I forget what you call these riders, but they always remind me of a book I once read by Janet Daily about Oklahoma and a rodeo girl who rode like this. What are they called? Roman something.The whole group of Americanas. You will often see them riding at the Days of 47 parade in Salt Lake City. This was the 3rd place float from Egin Bench Ward. I thought it was the best float, but I know Egin Bench usually wins and so I think they have to give other wards a chance to win so they won't be offended and drop out of the parade float building contest. The three pictures below are of this float. The front. Too bad the signers of the declaration had their backs to me. I believe that the one on the right is a British soldier. How odd. I didn't know the British were in on the declaration of independence. The middle. Handcart pioneers. This platform went around in circles. So they twirled around as they went. I heard that they got so dizzy that they fell off toward the end. JKThe last part of this float. I think that the missionaries were coming to preach the gospel to this very patriotic young couple with a flag pole in the front of their house. The couple looked like they were just out of primary. Cute but young for a happily married couple. This float was so drn cute, but it had nothing to do with the theme of the parade. And I'm not sure that I got the whole theme of this float. The car was supposed to be out of gas, and the side panel said " if life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Hard to give this float a prize when it doesn't follow its own theme let alone the theme of the parade. This was the 1st place float. There were workers building the temple and using blocks of granite from a quarry. Angel Moroni was also being put into place. I think you can see it if you click on the picture. This is the quarry they were taking the granite from.This was the grand prize winner! I thought it was OK, but it wasn't very showy. That's George Washington praying on the front of the float with a twirly thing that revolved showing patriotic pictures and documents and then...the back of the float showed Joseph Smith in the grove seeing the first vision and the twirly thing revolved showing pictures of the church and the proclamation. Very good theme follower. That's why it won.

The big tractors are from Ashton and the small ones are old ones that have been redone.

A rhino decorated like a rhino.

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The missionaries.

Ashton Stake float. I didn't know this was Ashton's until I saw the back.

The people in this wagon look like a pretty rough bunch to me.

A great grandma was supposed to be on this float with her gazillion great-grandchildren, but by the end of the parade route, great-grandma was not to be found. I think she high-tailed it away from all those grandchildren.

One of my more humorous observations. Angel Moroni looking suspiciously short and chubby. It was a baby doll someone had spray-painted gold. I can just imagine them finishing the float and saying," hey, we don't have an angel Moroni yet, what are we going to do, and some frantic float chairman runs home and grabs her daughter's baby-doll, spray paints it and says, "Here , no one will even look at him." All the decorators roll their eyes and think to themselves, "Sister so-and-so has lost it. Maybe she needs to be released as the float chairman." Let's talk to the Bishop on Sunday.

Joseph reclining in the sacred grove. The parade was just about finished and he couldn't hold his kneeling pose with arms upraised anymore. He groaned and just fell backwards. Funny Joseph.