Parade

We went to our annual parade here in our little city.  This year, it was crazy!!  There was an entry that our stake spearheaded with Helaman and his 2,000 stripling warriors and everyone was excited to see it.  We also heard rumors President Monson would be the Grand Marshall.  We aren't allowed to set chairs or anything up before 7:00 am the morning of the parade, but there were chairs and awnings and blankets all over the place the morning before the parade.  So, Julie and I took our chairs down and set them behind the sidewalk to reserve our spot and took turns driving past during the day to make sure they were still there.  Then we got up at 2 in the morning and spent the rest of the night sleeping with our stuff.  There were a lot more people there than previous years.  President Monson was not the Grand Marshall, but the 2,000 warriors were quite a sight.  We had had a Family Home Evening lesson that week talking about them and so our kids really thought it was cool.

My sister and her kids came down to go with us too.

Reagan just liked that she got candy from the floats. 

Owen loved the bands and would dance all over when they came by. 

Here's Helaman with his warriors following... 

These pictures don't give the scope of how many boys there were.  They were lined up across the whole road and the line went on for three or four minutes.  Each of the boys had a staff that had metal on the bottom of it that they would pound the ground with every few steps.  In the middle of their march, they all stopped and you could see the staffs at the front of the line start pounding and it spread throughout the line until they were all pounding in unison.  Then they pounded faster and faster and stopped, put their staffs in the air and yelled "We did not doubt!!"  It was really awe inspiring and gave you a visual of just how many young men went to battle with Helaman.  It was a good visual lesson for my kids.