My little corner of chaos: Pioneer Days Celebration-July 24th!

I grew up in a tiny little town in Idaho. St. Anthony to be exact. For many, many years the town has celebrated it's Mormon Pioneer Heritage by it's annual Pioneer Days Celebration!

For a tiny little town this is quite a production. The entire area gets involved. The local Mormon(LDS) church helps coordinate and run events. Each congregation(ward) enters a float that follows the theme chosen for the year. These floats are amazing! There is quite the competition to get the Grand Prize float award! They rival any floats from the Salt Lake City parade! Local businesses enter little floats, cheerleaders ride on firetrucks. The local baseball teams are in pickups, the Jr. Miss girls ride on old cars(which are usually my sister in laws dad's cars!). There are Grand Marshalls and kids holding banners in front of floats. Horses and pooper scoopers. Old farmers on older tractors. Old Mayors hollering at new Mayors. This parade is totally America at its best! Everyone comes out and supports the town, the kids, the veterans , our country and our faith in God.

The 24th parade is a tradition I will never tire of! There have been a few summers here and there that we have not been able to attend. The summer just seems off, like something is missing. We missed the parade last year. This year we had to leave our house at 6:00 am to make it in time--we didn't want to miss it again!

A few years ago the route was changed so the parade now goes directly in front of my Mom's house. So--it becomes a mini reunion! All the Aunts and Uncles, cousins and friends come to find a great seat.

Justin was totally anxious for the parade to finally begin! He is still such a joy to watch-he just loves everything about the parade!
This parade still allows candy to be thrown-so the kids run and catch as much as possible.

No matter how old I get I am still so moved by the carrying of the American Flag. I never tire of this tradition.

When I was a girl we always had marching bands. We would hear them practice all summer for the parade. I marched in a few parades. Then the marching bands disappeared. It was so sad. I loved the marching bands. I was so thrilled this year to hear and then see the marching band coming down the street! They were lucky they didn't have to wear the full band uniform that we wore--those were hot!

While I watched the parade a flood of memories came back to me. I remember carrying the very front banner with my best friend Laurel. We had matching rainbow shirts. Another year I rode on a pick up truck with our girls only baseball team-in a boys league. We never did win a game. I remember marching in the band. The first year we were in full uniform. Wool pants, heavy jackets and helmets. I remember taking off the jacket and being soaked to the skin it was so hot! I remember another year my sister riding on a float and it started to rain. I was at the front of the parade with the banner and she was at the back on the Grand Prize float. She was totally drenched when she was finished. We have watched the parade on Bridge street, at Bob's Lube Bay, at Uncle Merrill's house, at Vance's house and now at Mom's.