24th of July

I just love the 24th of July celebration in Monroe. Here are some pics of the festivities:

Children's Parade- Josh and Ayden in a "covered wagon" (thanks Lisa for the cute idea, and for providing the wagon) pulled by Caitlin. Allie was riding her bike earlier in the parade but I couldn't get a picture! Kudos to Steve, Michelle and Lisa for walking with the kids. It was not cooled down much by 6 pm.

Of course, after the children's parade there was the yummy BBQ hosted by the city. But I was too busy eating to take any pictures of that...

For my family, the 24th starts off with the Milk Run (since my mom is the one in charge of it). But this year I couldn't motivate my 8-month pregnant body out of bed at 6 am, so I didn't help. (Sorry Mom.) No pictures of that either... but here is a picture of this year's shirt design, provided by a super talented artist I happen to be married to. :)

Then there was the parade. Josh and I were finally up and ready for the day. Here is Josh with Grandma waiting for the parade to start.

Ayden (my nephew) was really excited about the parade too. He is too cute.

My sister Lisa's kids get to ride in a train that their Great-Grandpa Mathis built. It is pretty cute. You can see Cannon in the front car (the covered one). Caitlin was there too, and Conner, but I didn't get pictures of them.

Even my brother Michael was in the parade with the Monroe Lion's Club. He hooked us up with a few good sized handfuls of candy. (His daughters were in the parade too, but I didn't get pictures of them... starting to wonder why they had me be in charge of the camera?)

We asked Allie to come smile for the camera so we could send a picture to Scott. This is what we got:

A classic part of the parade is a guy from my parents' ward named Walt LeFevere who drives this covered wagon. This year his very brave wife was actually riding one of the mules. She got quite the shock when Walt suddenly urged the mules ahead to catch up with the rest of the parade!

I mentioned the early start my parents had in order to prepare for the Milk Run. It started to show...

After the parade we hung out at the park, where there were food and craft booths (including Steve's caricature sketch booth). There were also rides on the fire truck. Josh was so excited, until it came time to actually ride it. So here are pictures of all the non-sissy cousins who actually rode the fire truck. You can see Caitlin being handed off the back, and Cannon and Allie are close behind.

After the festivities at the park came the afternoon nap. Then a fun BBQ with my sister Michelle, and of course fireworks. But no pictures of any of that... because I am lame. All in all a great 24th. Hooray for the pioneers!