Friday, July 16, 2010

4th of July

I grew up going to the Provo parade every 4th of July. We would camp out the night before on the parade route for a good spot, enjoy a McDonald's breakfast, hot air balloons and lots of fun watching the parade. It was usually followed by a picnic at a park (the one day of the year we ate KFC) a movie and then watching the fireworks from Stadium of Fire. What great memories.

Living in Georgia and not being by family - I longed to celebrate one of my favorite holidays. So - we made it happen! I had heard about a parade in a small town called Colbert, about 20 minutes from our house. It started at 9am and I figured we needed to be loading the car by 8am if we had any hope of making it.

So - I woke up at 6:30, showered and woke Shawn up. He needed a hair cut, so I cut it real fast and while he showered, I made a yummy french toast breakfast (one of our favorites!) We got the girls all ready and made it in the car by 8:15. Not shabby with a 4 week old.

We headed out and once I saw the sign, "Colbert City Limits" I said to Shawn, well - let's hope we run into the parade route somewhere. We sure did!! To give you an idea, Colbert has a population of just over 500 people and I had read that the highest turned out they had had one year was about 12,000 people. We found some parking and then easily found a spot. Only a few people were sitting on the south side of the street. So, we set up camp.

About 5 minutes before the parade started, everyone on our side of the street starting moving to the middle of the road? WHAT? Do we follow suit? We sure did! Setting up camp on the median, in the middle of the highway!
Finally - our first family photo with Adalyn. She was 4 weeks old today!
We had fun with some friends from our ward. Thanks!
One of the MANY, MANY cars in the parade. The first 15-20 minutes was a stream of old cars. It was fun to see all the different models.

Then we saw a really old car....not restored. We told the girls it was "Mater" and they got excited and started waving!This made it worth Shawn's day!! If you know Shawn well, then you know Back to the Future is one of his all time favorite movies. To see a Delorian with it's "wings" up and ready to fly was "SUPER COOL"
Oh look - another "Mater"
Tractors were a highlight....gotta love the small town parade.

We're sitting enjoying ourselves, when all the sudden "Uga" comes along. He is the official mascot for the University of Georgia Bulldogs! Fun to see him up close!These little 4-wheeler monster trucks were cool.
Finally....a float! "Shawn take a picture" I think this was one of two floats in the whole parade.

Confederate flag and soldiers....found only in the south!
We had a very fun time at the parade. As it was nearing where we were sitting, we noticed all these people pulling out grocery bags. I thought, "This is strange." Well, when we were ready to pack up and leave, we were wishing we had a grocery bag. The kids got SO MUCH CANDY, it was Halloween all over again. Great times.

After the parade, we took the girls to the $1 movie and saw "How to Train your dragon." Very cute movie. After that, Shawn took the girls swimming. It was a great day!

4 comments:

Katie said...

How fun!!!! only missing the fireworks and balloons.. and don't feel too bad... we went to the balloons and it was too windy half of them didn't even blow up and the ones that did didn't lift off! haha

Emily S. said...

What a nice parade! I think I know what we'll be doing next year!! Morg loves Back to the Future as well - he would have gotten a kick out of the Delorian too.

Pratt Family said...

A start of a new fourth of July tradition, at least for a few more years. Sounds like a fun low key day of celebration. Cute family!

The Clanton Gang said...

Love the Colbert Parade! It's the South at its best. But, that flag isn't a Confederate flag--it's the State of GA flag. :)