parades, parades, parades

Tis the season for parades.  It seems like every town has a parade going on and we seem to go check it out.  I'm not complaining, actually I like parades, the candy the floats, and the marching bands.  I love a good marching band, the loud brass the rhythmic drums and even the uniforms.  Not to be upstaged by a good bag pipe band.  I also love the bagpipes.  So much so that I had a bag piper at my wedding play outside as the guest came in, and my servers were dressed in kilts.  It was pretty awesome.

scott his mom and nephew Austin

Nieces Mandy and Kelsey

nephew Landon

my brother Scott and his son Wyatt

I am even okay with the heat that couples a parade.

Here they  know how to put on a parade and I love that the majority of my family comes as well.  My dad always yells and whistles for more candy.  He was just as bad as the kids this year.

We were lucky enough to has Scott family with us this year although I am not sure how much they enjoyed it they thought it was too long, I say just just got to learn how to enjoy it.  We first when to the Lehi parade which was put on the end of June and they had a lot of real floats.  Something severely lacking in a California parade.  

On the fourth we went to the Sandy parade that is held in the evening a much better time for a parade.  They also have a carnival and fireworks after the parade.  

During the Sandy parade my nephew Mosiah had an ingenious way of catching all the candy that came his way.

My mother taught us very well to be respectful to our flag.  We absolutely must stand and put our hand on our hearts.  This always bothers me when people don't do this so I am trying to instill patriotism in my children as well.  Peter put his hand over his chest and turned to ask, "is this how we do it mommy?"  So sweet. 

When we watch the floats we always cheer loudest for the landfill float.  Its an on going tradition with my family.  The back story is that we have all been to the dump many times.  We always had to take a load here and there from different jobs and we always found something interesting at the dump.   You know what they say "one mans junk is another mans treasure."  One time we found a whole box of Elvis Presley drivers licenses so we formed a club and those were our ID's.

Peter showing off his loot

mosiahs candy catcher

patriotic peter

my cute nephew Wyatt