June 2008 Road Trip

Orem, Utah
Every year the city of Orem has a celebration where they have a carnival, arts and crafts booths, an evening parade (goes by my mom's house), and fireworks. It has been years since I have visited Utah in the summer and thought it would be nice for Sydney and Spencer to experience this tradition from my youth.

Parade Prep
A night or two in advance, Jen and I bought tarps to stake out an area of their yard for our friends and family to watch the parade on. We guess-timated what size of tarps we'd need buying one medium and two smalls, hoping they would be enough. We spread one medium and one small tarp out. Holy cow! I am a spaz! They ended up covering almost the entire width of Nana's house and yard. I wanted to put the last one out just in case we needed it. Gary wouldn't let me. If you were wondering, we had plenty of room.

BBQ & Corn Shucking

The day of the parade Jen and Gary cooked dinner. They had Sydney and Spencer shuck corn for the very first time. Yes I said shuck. They had fun and did a good job. Dinner was yummy! Thanks Jen and Gary!

Orem's Summerfest Parade



Kaitlyn (Kya's bff), Kya, Spencer Kylie, Sydney, & Spencer waiting for candy to be thrown to them.

Kylie & Sydney are cousins and best friends.

Brennon checking out Brian. Steph & Brian enjoying parade.


Tevan on the infamous tarp and Brennon looking sharp.

Miss Spanish Fork
We were excited to see Dason's cousin, Ashlee Jex, on a float in Orem's parade. It turns out she earned the title of Miss Spanish Fork. Sydney, Spencer, and I started yelling, "Ashlee, Ashlee!" The first pic is of her hearing her name trying to see who it is and the 2nd is of her realizing who we were. How cute is her expression when she does. She is so adorable! We love the Jex family!

"Who's calling my name?" "Hey, I know them and they aren't stalkers! Yay!"

Can You Name This Float?

This float had Jen and me confused when it went by. There is another leg on the other side. To us it looked like the statue was in the middle of a gyno visit!! It was actually promoting an art program. Fooled me. :) Jen cracked me up saying they needed to take this float back to the "drawing" board.

Fireworks & Glo Stick Incident
Afterwards we watched fireworks in the field at Orem High. Gary and Jen couldn't go because they were taking care of Kya. She had chewed on a glow stick and the liquid went in her eye and was in a lot of pain. We are so grateful it didn't do any permanent damage. They did get to see the end of the fireworks display.

Orem High Secret Tour
OHS our alma mater is being remodeled, so Brian, Steph, and I took the kids late that night to explore the campus and buildings before they were demolished. It was pretty cool yet a little creepy. We showed them the secret underground tunnels that my brothers explored while students there. I wish I would've had the courage to join them back then. Once a fraidy-cat always a fraidy-cat.

Fun in Kya's New Pool


The water was really cold. They played in it a lot longer than I thought they would. Gary ended up grabbing the hose & spraying them down with the cold water for kicks. Of course Spencer only thought it was funny when he got to return the favor. Gary tortures my kids just like he tortured me growing up.