Happy Independence Day!

Tabitha and Brandon watching the parade

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd here in Utah, and we had a blast.  My family has made it a tradition to attend the Kaysville Water Parade every year.  The Water Parade is fantastic and I highly recommend it to those of you looking for something fun to do on the 4th.  Pretty much anyone can enter something in the parade, which means that a large part of it is "floats" advertising various businesses in Kaysville.  I know that Kaysville has several dance studios and tumbling gyms, the Davis High School Band is enormous and has a sizable drum line, and the city has a Bomb Squad vehicle (not sure why).  There were even a couple of people that drove their super fancy cars (or put them on flat beds and towed them) in the parade (you can draw your own conclusions about that...).  Most of the "floats throw some sort of candy or giveaway and all of the kids stand out in the street and fight it out.  The most popular this year was Sweet's Taffy, which must make a billion dollars around the 4th of July, frisbees, and neckties, which I think were from the Missionary Emporium, but I'm not sure.

Of course that isn't the best part of the parade.  At the end of the parade is the water part, which essentially ends up being a city-wide water fight.  Cute little Independence Day outfits come off little kids to reveal swimming, suits, super soakers and large buckets of water come out, and hoses are reeled out from the homes to the street.  The parade watchers and "floats" start battling it out until everyone is soaked head to toe.

The tradition started years ago when my parent's company, Impact Imaging decided that they were going to enter a "float."  Their "float" developed over the years, but our final year included an enormous water tank on a flat bed trailer, with several water cannons, designed and developed by my Dad rigged up to it, along with a couple of sprayers.  I was fortunate enough to participate in the parade and have great memories of my Dad soaking and getting soaked.  It was totally his thing.

Needless to say, Tildy slept through most of the parade, waking up just as the water portion started.  We kept her out of the water for the most part, but next year it's on!

Tildy asleep in her stroller

All decked out in her Independence Day outfit