24th of July - Float Preview Party

Every year in Utah we celebrate the 24th of July, the day the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley and began to settle what would later become our great state of Utah. Part of the celebration includes a large parade downtown. Although we have never braved the crowds to see the actual parade we have made it to the float preview party for the last two years. Here you can get right up close to the floats, see all the cool details, and view them in the South Towne Expo Center where it is cool and air-conditioned. There are marching bands practicing for the parade and free face painting and balloon animals. We went with our good friends the Tafts and the Taylors.

My Cute Spider Man!

Matthew Taylor, Bryton, and Chase Taft who were all in the same pre-school together all had to have the same snake on their cheek.

Maili and Ella Taylor both wanted to be tigers. Since they only painted half the face for free I advised them to get 2 different halves painted so they could then put their cheeks together to form one complete tiger.

Just a few of the floats we saw.

The kids voted for this "Monsters vs. Aliens" float on their "Kids Choice Award" ballot.

For some reason when Bryton approached the balloon animal guy and tried to tell him what he wanted they guy told him he already had an idea......and proceeded to take 5-10 minutes making Bryton this incredible wearable balloon helicopter. I've never seen anything like it before!