As a side note, I must say that I consider myself to be quite the parade connoisseur. Since I was very young, I've had the pleasure of either attending or participating in the Sanford Colorado 24th of July festivities, and though the town is small, its parade rivals Macy's. Add in my illustrious career as a Lone Peak Marching Knight and my credentials speak for themselves. So you can totally trust my judgement on parades :)
For a small town parade, it was pretty great. There were about a thousand fire trucks and ambulances, and that right there is a key component to any good parade. As a parade organizer, I imagine there's a goal of having enough noisy sirens to deafen the parade audience to the innane comments of the parade announcer for a long period of time after the sirens have gone by--sort of a tender mercy, if you will.
This parade far and away excelled in that category. I had to drag Jed out of the stroller for this picture.
The rest of the time, he was huddled like this, trying to get away from the noise. I think he thinks that shade blocks a host of evils, since so far it's protected him from sun, rain, sleet, snow, barking dogs and bird poop.
The next thing a good parade needs is floats. And lots of them. But in order to make your parade really excellent, they have to be well spaced, so as to keep the audience's interest piqued. The first float on Saturday was the Peanut Queen's.
I have to say, this float is a little generic. Dave and I wondered if they just take off the numbers and the name and re-use it every year. Also, I'm bothered by the fact that she's not the Peanut Princess. I know a princess is less than a queen, but the alliteration appeals to me so very much.
The next thing a stellar parade needs is a marching band. Bonus points if they're in step and all playing the same song.
These guys were pretty good. They weren't playing anything when they went by us, which was disappointing. I have to say, I liked that kid in his football jersey, although I wonder about the logistics of being on the football team and the marching band. Maybe they let him do the halftime show in his pads?
Another component of a good parade? The totally random people who show up in crazy vehicles.
We were informed by the announcer (once we could hear again) that the driver of the bat-mobile was a former Peanut Queen. Clearly, once you're a Peanut Queen, your life can only get better.
This little guy was pretty random but pretty cute. I only hope the batteries on his tractor lasted the whole parade route!
The Wonders of Creation float by a couple of churches. It was so awesome--all these animal mounts, and there was a waterfall behind Adam and Eve. This was probably my favorite float of all.
My friend Laura teaches dance in her "spare time." Here she is on the right, with her daughter Kendall on her lap, and her daughters Hannah and Taylor further back (with the curly hair). Another little girl who attends our branch is also pictured--Rori's looking straight at the camera. It was so cute to see the girls' faces light up when they saw me. I love teaching primary and being able to get to know these sweet, darling girls!
This float had three gigantic pyramids on it, celebrating the pyramids at Giza as one of the 7 wonders of the world. I was a little more impressed by that high school boy's washboard abs. But the float was pretty great too.
I can't get over how beautiful this float is. Seriously, one of the best I've seen in my entire parade career.
Another wonder of the world float--the Golden Gate bridge. I'm wondering who came up with the theme for the floats, cause it seems a little random. Anyway, I really liked the painting on the side.
After the parade was over, we wandered over to the Peanut Festival to find some goober-peas. We strolled around all the booths and looked at lots of knives, bird houses, purses and jams. Jed saw a little puppet theater with puppets dancing inside. He loved it! He got as close as he possibly could and danced along with the puppets for quite a while. Wouldn't you know I forgot to take a picture! We finally found our peanuts, too. Dave left the festival completely satisfied.
As we were leaving, we encountered this amazing sight:
Yes, that is a green poodle wearing a purple outfit. We pretended to think it was the cutest thing ever so we could get a decent photo. Actually, the dog was really well trained and did quite a few tricks for us.
I'm just not sure why she is green.
I think I am going to add "dyed animals, preferably wearing clothes" to my list of things that make a good parade a great one.
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