The Donahoe Family

July 4th 2008- Change is Good

Yes, it is true, we broke a 30 year plus tradition! Every July 4th since I can remember we set up our chairs in front of the red church on 4400 S and watched the Riverdale parade and then went to the park for the carnival. I have LOTS of great memories of the 4th! The last couple of years the Riverdale parade has gone downhill at a rapid pace. Ty is on the planning committee in Clearfield so we decided to check out their parade this year. I have to admit that it was better than we thought. I am not really a fan of parades because they have become so commercialized and noone does floats anymore. It's true! In fact, my kids had NO IDEA what we were talking about when we were saying how much we missed the good ol days when the parades were all about the floats. Now, they have been educated! There were only a handful of floats in this parade, but at least they now know what a float really is.....and I can't really say that "I LOVE a parade" - sing it with me, BUT I enjoyed it a lot better this year. Plus, my family traditionally isn't real big on change, so this was a big step - way to go guys!

This picture reminds me of something you would see in a magazine - with the kids with their hands on their heart as the flag marches by.

One of the first "floats" we saw - Ha ha - get it?

I have to put in this picture just because. These guys painted their old truck brown and they all dressed up like Pirates of the Carribean - head to toe, AND they had huge cannons in the back of the truck that they lit at random - SOOO cool! Totally diggin the PIRATES!

Call me cheesey, but this was kinda funny! Let's see who BLOGS it first!!

My poor husband, rockin his eyepatch like only he can! He had a bad case of Irisitis - or something like that. He was really miserable at the parade because of all the sunlight so he couldn't make it to the park, he stayed at Aunt Bax's and chilled out. The kids ALL found it rather unsettling that their dad had to stay behind (they all bawled) so Josh stayed with him. How sweet! Josh missed the festivities at the park to stay home and play chess and watch baseball with dad. He also found some nachos in the cupboard! Thanks Aunt Bax!

Jantz found a way to stop the popsicle from melting down his arm....pretty smart for a 4yr old.

The kids played the game where you try to hit the middle pink cup in a sea of other blue cups to win a frog. With the first toss of the ping pong ball....we added a new member to the family! Meet Alice, who has since been renamed to be Izzy! Abby just marched right up to the line and tossed her ball right into the cup - we were all laughing! So many other kids tried and tried to win a frog. Jantzen tried twice too, he nicked the pink cup once. What a ringer!

They also enjoyed the inflatables section - with only one leg!

We went back to Ty and Brooke's house later for a BBQ and some swimming. Jantz made up a game with Hailee where he would drag her around and then fall down in the water, Hailee laughed her head off.

Dayt was trying to enjoy some peace and quiet but the ladies just can't stay away!

This picture is so sad! I DO sunblock my children! They are just so skinny that sometimes their pants fall a little low when they get heavy and wet. The other day, Josh got a little bit of sun where the sun don't shine! I couldn't resist takin this shot!

Josh has been waiting and waiting for the "Scales and Tails guy" to come up North. We caught his exhibit at the Clearfield park. Josh is all about reptiles and spiders. He reads countless books from the library. This guy has all sorts of creepy little pets. Josh was in HEAVEN! He brought some tarantulas, scorpions, tortoises, snakes, and lizards. He even put a black king scorpion in his mouth! This guy is CrAZy!!

This is slug - he is HUGE!

This is a huge Albino snake, can't remember the name, I was too busy freaking out.

This is Squish. He is 14 ft long and 130lbs! You can't even begin to imagine how ginormous this snake was! All those kids were holding that snake with all their muscles! He was the grand finale. All my kids went up to pet him, I made Dayt go with them!

I was a little sad because we were making plans to buy some stadium of fire tickets but when Dayt's eye got so bad we decided we better not go. So, we did a little firework show of our own before catching the famous clearfield fireworks.