Independence Day 2012

I love the Fourth of July, it's pretty much a toss up between it and Christmas which one is my favorite. I love getting together with the rest of the community to celebrate America. I love the music, I love fireworks, I love the food and I really love watching the parade especially in Ashton. Dad figured that Ashton's Parade is so nice that you see it twice. He's referring to the fact that it goes down main street, turns around and comes back down main street for a second time. Kind of a silly and fun thing that small towns do. Well, back in June when my mom and I were coming back home from Utah we got on the topic of the Fourth and decided it was high time that Baum Farms submitted a float in the parade!

First, that morning we went to the community breakfast then mom and dad ran home to get the float down to the parking lot be judged.

We found out the theme, "America, my home sweet home" and decided that we would come up with a cute idea for our float. The idea changed a couple of times but we came up with what we wanted to do two days before the parade.

 Yep, cutting it a little close but this float was a group effort, even uncle Kent and cousin Jason helped out. Kent found the flag pole, Andrew made the form for the house, I painted it, Dad, Jason, Zack and Andrew figured out how to rig up the backdrop. Mom did the crepe paper fringes and I my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the gold letters. Dad decided that he wanted to put in a little surprise and rigged the Ranger's horn so that when you pushed it there was a tank in back that sprayed water at the kids who came to get candy. Genius! So like I said it was a real group effort and it turned out so fun!

And of course the girls did their part by looking cute in their outfits and throwing candy.

WE got a little asphyxiated while waiting for the parade to start by the exhaust from all of these old John Deere tractors, not surprising to see in an Ashton parade. 

Then the parade started and I rode on the Ranger until we saw the Walkers, Nati, Zack and Grandpa. I watched from the shade from then on, just in time to see Andrew handing out chocolate milk for the Farm Bureau insurance float.

Other than our float, I enjoyed this one the most, it was from Dave's our local grocery store. They are a family in our ward and they were having an actual BBQ on their trailer and handing out burgers instead of candy! I couldn't stop laughing it was such a good idea. Anyone who knows Ashton at all knows how important Dave's is to our little community.

Here is Margie enjoying her burger from the Dave's float.

Here they are on their way back again, you can see the water spraying from the back of the Ranger. The kids loved the water more the second time than the first because it was getting a little toasty.

What a fun fourth of July to have a float in the parade, yeah we got second place (don't ask) but it was soo much fun and all of the hard work paid off.

We had a good afternoon at the park afterwards and a great dinner at home, read our freedom documents,  as well as some fun fireworks in the back. Then finished off the night with the fireworks down town at the high school.

We love America and are so proud to belong to this wonderful country. We are blessed with so many freedoms and hope to help continue making this country the great place that it is.