24th and Watermelon

 We celebrated the 24th of July with another parade. This time Blake got to come with us, so that always makes it extra fun. Blake had recently returned from going on a youth trek with our church to Martin's Cove in Wyoming. He spent 3 days taking care of the youth and their leaders as they pulled handcarts and reenacted the Mormon pioneers' journey to Utah. I am so thankful for my pioneer ancestors. On my mom's side, my ancestors settled in Cache Valley. On my dad's side, my grandparents are modern day pioneers, having joined the church when my dad was 3. There is no doubt that I am who I am today because of their faith and determination. Because of them, Blake and I now raising a new generation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 Grant was so entranced by everything going on in the parade.

 At the beginning of the parade we told our kids to stand up as the flag passed by as a sign of respect. It's tradition to end the parade with tractors down main street. Porter saw the flags and stood up again. I was so proud that he felt the need to stand up. Plus, the tractors are just really, really cool.

 After the parade we had intentions of going down to the river to play in the water. On our way, we saw that a car dealership had a lunch-thing going on and that radio station was there so we stopped and ate. Then a man from the radio station asked Blake to participate in a watermelon eating contest. Each contestant had 5 pounds of watermelon and 5 minutes to eat as much of it as they could--without using their hands!

 Brooke got to be an honorary judge to make sure no one was using their hands.

Blake ended up coming in 3rd place. He ate 3lbs of watermelon in 5 minutes. We got a free oil change for participating. It was a fun and unexpected turn of events in our day...and we never did end up going to the river!