Happy Independence Day!

I am going to try to always call this holiday Independence Day so as to avoid the terms "25th of December" and "14th of February"...anyway, Dan has already given his rundown of the holiday, but obviously his favorite part of the parade was much different than mine. I definitely laughed to see the missionaries in the parade...it made me think about what kind of parades I could have walked in as a missionary...and this was the first one that came to my mind...

Terrifying, isn't it? I don't know if you can see this picture very well, but these people appear to be wearing KKK outfits. They're not...this is a parade called "Procession of the Mysteries" and it is held on Good Friday...those are all the parades I remember from Italy...about saints or some Catholic holiday...that would have been funny to have the missionaries walking down the street with them. Anyway, back to the Independence Day parade at the Provo Freedom Festival. My favorite floats include the following:

The Payson Onion Days float (which carries Miss Payson, who I feel I have a sort of connection to, since I was able to attend her crowning ceremony...and view her in a bathing suit...and listen to her response to how to solve the world's problems).

The float with a pig on it. Do I remember what that float was for? No. But I will NEVER forget that pig! I can read on the side that it has something to do with AF, and since AF appreciates pigs, it makes me want to move there...

And last but not least...the Curious George balloon. Personally, when I saw this balloon, I realized that this parade was a big deal. I mean, most parades in our lovely state don't have balloons, right? Those are saved for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC! I was very impressed that they had not one, not two, but THREE balloons at this parade. However, I was a little confused about the Underdog balloon...do kids these days know who Underdog is? Maybe...but I don't think so. But I guess kids do like big blow up things, and they were paying more attention to the candy that was being thrown (as were we...and I was really wishing I had a baby so I had an excuse to run up and grab some candy!).