Mormons: A Peculiar People!

Happy 4th of July! Here in Provo is the Utah Freedom Grand Parade just a mile from my parents condo, so of course we thought it would be great fun to take Jaxon...little did we know the BIG GIANT DEAL this parade is. People camped out (YES, as in--with tents) along the parade route starting at 9am the day before (that's as early as you are allowed to camp out) roping off large sections, setting up tents, camp chairs, Grills, griddles, generators with swamp coolers, TV's, DVD players, Wiis, etc. Seriously! All this for prime seating at a parade??? I saw a friend of mine before I knew about the Hullabaloo of the parade, and she had a giant whiteboard in her garage with a list of 27 things to remember to bring down to the parade! I really didn't get it at all, so she said, "For me, this is bigger than Christmas! Just wait...you'll see!"
To tell you the truth, I thought it was all a little weird and slightly lame to camp out just to see an hour and a half long parade....that is... until this morning as we got into the thick of things. It wasn't really about the parade for most of these 200,000 people. Of course the parade is great, but it was about tradition and family. Going year after year, taking shifts at the "camp site", cooking on the grill, cousins in tents giggling all night, and just being together. You have never seen a breakfast feast like some of these families were enjoying together. It made me imagine if all our family were here...taking a shift with my sisters chatting and snoozing, dad grilling for everyone in the evening...sounds like great fun! Lindsay was right... I GOT IT!!!
Anyway...we were going to start the one mile walk about about 7:45 (Parade started at 9) and take our chances with getting Jaxon a seat anywhere near the actual parade. Since we had spent yesterday at 7-peaks...we all slept in (even Jaxon!!) and didn't end up getting out the door until a little after 8. To say it was total mayhem down University would be the understatement of the century. So we walked and walked and walked...and finally found a little spot about 30 feet from the street that was actually saved for residents of it's apartment building...but all the tenants were watching out their windows and said,"Go ahead!" A few minutes later we saw a large roped off area that had only about 1/4 being used by a hispanic family with 4 little boys. We asked if we could sit in the back corner, and the wonderful kind mother told us, NO! Bring the little boy (Jaxon) up to the curb so he could see. She was offering us drinks, snacks, and gave us her extra camp chair-seriously- AN ANGEL!
Jaxon loved the parade and watched the whole thing in awe. Towards the end he even ventured off our laps to run 10 feet into the street for the candy being thrown! It was such a fun morning, and I am looking forward to a picnic with my parents for lunch in Provo Canyon, an afternoon with 2 of Dave's sisters and their families...selling my parents reserved parking spots at their condo for $20 a pop to Stadium of Fire goers (Jo Bros performing this year) and then listening to the concert and watching the Stadium of Fire fire works (biggest fire work show in Utah) from the lawn!

Why have I never come to Utah for the 4th Before????