76 Trombones in the Big Parade . . .

I really doubt there were more than a dozen! We all packed up Saturday morning and went to Jarom's last parade of the summer - the Days of '47 Youth Parade. It was a very warm day. It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees, I heard, but I'm not sure if it did. The good thing is that we found shade to sit in and we remembered to bring our chairs this time. I'm going to get the hang of this parade thing yet.

Did you know that the Days of '47 Youth Parade is the biggest youth parade in the country? That's what the announcer said. Longest running, too, I think.

When the Days of '47 Royalty drove past, Meagan and I were disappointed that they weren't wearing big funky, hoop-skirted dresses like they did in the 1947 Centennial Parade. We know, because the dresses are on display at the DUP musuem. To the best of my recollection, one of them was white with sequined seagulls and crickets on it, one was blue with beehives and bees and one was red with covered wagons. Maybe they'll break them out for the Bi-Centennial parade, huh? Instead, they were wearing boring black dresses.

I should upload photos of the parade. I remembered to bring the camera this time. Actually, David remembered. Holly and Katelyn were in the parade, too. I saw them, but they did not see me. I was going to look for them after the parade, but once we found Jarom, David and Cameron were hot and tired and ready to go, so we left.

Alot of the Stakes had cute ideas for dressing up their primary kids to march behind their float. One stake had everyone dressed up as apples with sock puppet worms sticking through a hole in the apple. Why do we think wormy apples are cute?? Holly's stake had their kids with fish hats - and Holly and other adults got to carry cloth waves. One had kids dressed up as pioneers, carrying picture frames. It's a good thing the parade route was fairly short, because some of the little kids were exhausted by the time they got to us. We sat at the end of the parade like we usually do.

We lucked out and got popsicles from the band. Mrs. McBeth begged us to take some because the parade organizers gave the band a ton of popsicles and they were melting. That was a nice end to a hot parade.

Jarom and most of the band went to Lagoon after the parade. Jarom hung around with his friends Todd and Laura at Lagoon, so that was good. I didn't want him to have to wander around Lagoon alone. After he got home, he slept for a long time. I was glad I didn't have to stay out in that heat, but if I were 13 I may have wanted to. Now Cameron, Jarom and Amber have all gone to Lagoon this summer. Poor Meagan.

Camp & So Forth

Meagan and I survived yet another year of camp. It was Meagan's 6th year, so it was her last year and she was a YCL (youth camp leader). Camp was fun for the most part, and I enjoyed it, but it sure is alot of work when you're one of the leaders.

We transformed the Pavilion into "Heaven" by putting gauzy white material all around it (with a staple gun, white Japanese lanterns hanging from the rafters and white silk flowers on the tables. It really looked rather amazing.

The theme this year was "It's How You Play the Game" and each ward chose a different board game as their theme. Ours was the game of Life, but we didn't do much with it - we had enough to do with the Stake game and dinner, the service project, the skits, certification, visiting various wards and a spiritual hike that highlighted different people who were touched by Christ's life.

Meagan did all right until Thursday night (the last night) and I was pretty much ready to go home, too. It was SOOO cold at night and a cot is only so comfortable.

Jarom marched in the Ute Stampede Parade in Nephi the day Meagan and I got home from camp. He said the rodeo and parade were long and boring. At least he got the chance to experience it and decide if he liked it. It could have been that he didn't get home on the bus until 12:30 am Saturday morning. Apparently Jarom really likes Arby's because anytime the band stops at a group of restaurants to eat, that is always what he chooses. Maybe it's because they don't put condiments on their sandwiches - probably.