July 24th Primary Parade

For several years now (as long as I have been the Primary president and Heidi has been my secretary), the Primary has hosted a July 24th Pioneer Day Parade.  Last year we added a pancake breakfast and decided it is a wonderfully fun activity and we need to do it every year.  This is likely the last year I will be the Primary president, but I will encourage the next one to keep it up.

We have all the children come dressed in costume--pioneer, patriotic, western cowboy, Nephite/Lamanite, superhero--then we parade around the ward, beginning in the condos, going across the park and up through Wilsonville, then down through Normandy and ending at the pavilion in the park between the schools.  We are able to have everyone together at the beginning and at the end, and in between, we sort of get strung out.  But I think children and adults alike enjoy the march, and we try and be mildly entertaining to the few people who line the parade route to watch.  We need more watchers, but I haven't quite figured out how to get people to come out of their houses and stand at the curb as we go by, shouting encouraging words.  We mostly march for ourselves.

We had a great pancake breakfast following the parade.  While the Primary presidency was responsible for that last year (the Morgans and the Jensens, my counselors families, did all the cooking), this year we had a separate committee comprised of high priests who did all the food prep and the clean up.  I got no pictures of breakfast, but we had lots of people join us who were unaffiliated with the Primary, and that made us happy.  We wanted it to be a ward social event, and I was glad we had nearly 175 people eating breakfast.

A significant portion of the Primary.  

Blythe in on the top row (less the four really tall kids in the very back), third from the right, in a blue dress.

I had a little apron for her, but she didn't want to wear it.

Brandt is on the same row in the middle, wearing Grandpa Droubay's hat and a Lone Ranger mask

He has his holsters and guns, plus a rope he carried around.

Getting ready to and then parading.

We all had to stop and gather so that we could cross a busy street all at the same time.

Kent and Brian Bradford held up traffic for us so we got across safely.

I invited Grandma Sue to come watch the parade and join us for breakfast.

She brought Donovan who marched with Blythe and then got carried by Guy.

Heidi Moreland, Ella and Anne Madsen, Kayla Howell, and Abby Davis

Pansy Chan in the cowboy hat, then Emma and Lilly Bradford.

That's their dad Brian with the phone.  

Then Donovan walking with Blythe, Abbie Drake, Ashlyn and Shaylee Elder, and Everett Bushman.

Brady and Ainsley Matsu

Donovan and Blythe

Donovan is crouching down because I am crouching down to take his picture

 

One of the Primary teachers in our ward likes to do tightrope walking in his spare time.  He brought a rope and strung it up between two trees and let the kids take turns trying to walk across.  Brandt was totally uninterested, but Blythe gave it a go and made it all the way across as I held her hand.  It is tougher than it looks and she was pretty good.