every bathroom should have its own plunger

We had quite the weekend, complete with a Discovery Gateway visit, temple trip, parade, and a complete lack of naps. Of course, as is my habit of late, I didn't take pictures of half the trip...those will have to wait until I can steal some from Mom and Laura Lee. Thanks, guys. :)

But, don't you worry, I have plenty of pictures of the parade! As Mom says, you have to go to at least one good ol' small town parade every summer. In case you've missed yours this year, you can enjoy it vicariously through my blog.

We arrived about an hour and a half early to stake out our seats for the Draper Days Parade. Jane stayed entertained playing with her second cousins once removed, Maddie and Abby. They drew on the road with sidewalk chalk...


...and ate pretzels and fruit snacks.


Side story: Here is a closer shot of that scratch next to Jane's eye.


She did that a couple days ago. She was trying to stand on the lid of a toy bucket and slipped, hitting her head on the corner of the cupboard door. Luckily, she was more bruised than cut, so it didn't really bleed much, and she did recover quickly. I'm just glad it wasn't an inch more to the right.

And now back to your regularly scheduled parade programming.

My aunt Nancy took pictures of everyone.


Michael, on the other hand, decided to take a nap.


When the parade finally started, Jane made it known that she didn't appreciate the loud sirens and other noises. She stuck pretty close to Grandma for most of the time,


although she did venture out later on once she discovered that there was free candy for the taking.


By the way, have you ever heard of throwing marshmallows at a parade? The people sitting to the left of us were throwing mini-marshmallows at the people on the floats. I understand throwing candy from the floats to the viewing audience, by why throw things at the people in the parade?

It's been a while since I watched an entire parade. Here are some highlights:

We start with the lucky police officers who get to set the pace,


followed closely behind by none other than the Draper City Police tank.


Why, do you ask, does Draper City need a tank? I have no idea. I thought it was pretty funny.

No parade is complete without a high school marching band.


There were actually a couple different ones, and I thought this second group had a better plan in terms of costumes.


There were a few rather impressive floats. This first one was promoting recycling...could you tell?




I believe this float had a storybook theme. It was created by the Draper Utah Mountain Point Stake. I was impressed that a church stake would go to so much effort--I wouldn't have expected that.


Of course, they did have some competition from one of the local Spanish Branches.

Only in Utah will you find a Book of Mormon-based parade float.

If you were feeling a little sluggish watching the parade, you could always take this hiker's place and let the goat help you up the mountain.


It was insanely hot during the entire parade, and our shade left us about ten minutes before the parade even got to our spot. I did NOT envy the people on this float:


They were actually riding a bunch of stationary bikes during the whole parade route. Holy cow. Talk about heat stroke.

But, all told, this was probably the major highlight of the parade: A tow truck hauling an old motorhome.


Ok, really? I had no idea why this was in the parade. There were no banners or flyers advertising anything, no smiling, waving people walking alongside...if it weren't for the parade number ticket in the window, I would have assumed that the tow truck took a wrong turn and accidentally ended up in a parade. Go figure.

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And where was Chris during our grand parade adventure? He opted to stay home with my dad to work on a few projects...

Chris's weekend adventures:

~removed the water pump from Deborah's car

~drove to seven different auto parts and hardware stores throughout Salt Lake valley before finding the correct bolts at Ace Hardware, five minutes before they closed for the weekend

~installed a new water pump, with seven brand new, impossible to find metric bolts, in Deborah's car

~bought several new tools, including a Serpentine Belt Tool and a crow bar

~unclogged the drain in the green bathroom's sink

~organized all of my dad's tools into four different tool boxes that all neatly fit onto one shelf

~decluttered and reorganized the entire back patio, making the grill accessible and getting the broken washing machine out of the main walkway

~removed all the large rocks lining the patio so the recycling containers can be turned to face the house and have a spot out of the driveway

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Pop Quiz:
What is the significance of this parking lot?

One hint: It is in Draper.

Family Excluded! You can't give it away if you already know! This pop quiz is only open to people who have a real guess, not an answer.