Hometown 4th of July Parade

In the seven summers we lived in White Salmon, the 4th of July festivities were always pretty lackluster. Our little town has a Spring Fest in May and I always wondered if following that up with something else 5 weeks later was just too much for the community to handle. For whatever reasons, the pancake breakfasts, parades, outdoor concerts, and fireworks had to be found in other nearby towns.

2012: Enter the Air Force Band and some highly-motivated citizens, and you get a great little parade and a fantastic afternoon in the park.

I'm not sure how it all started, but when word got around that the Air Force Band would be in the Gorge, somebody got them booked for a march through White Salmon and a concert in the park. Then probably those same somebodies started spreading the word that veterans and kids could be in the parade behind the band.  We jumped right on that and had lots of fun getting our "floats" decorated and ourselves costumed.

Adah went the patriotic route and joined about ten other kids--some of them friends from school--in one of the bike groups.

Maggie decided to go as Cupcake the Clown.  She's pretty adorable, eh?

She worked the crowd with her candy and a flower that sprayed water.  My kids were pretty excited about throwing candy, since that's their favorite part of attending parades. (I need to get them to a real parade with big floats and marching bands.)

Gunnar, Holly, and I were the pirates. I think we may have had the only true float (I can call it that, right?) in the parade. Most everyone else was on foot, bike, or classic car.

Don't you love it? Damon was in charge of the sail. I made the ship's body and the anchor.

Here are a bunch of our friends that were all watching the parade together: 

The final stretch of the parade route was uphill and Adah decided to walk it. I don't blame her. . .

I had to call in my support staff to pull the wagon up that final hill.

When the parade was over, I ran home and gathered our picnic foods and then rejoined the rest of the family at the park where we enjoyed the Air Force Band playing great music, including some of our favorite John Philip Sousa marches, of course.

Later on we joined the friends (from the photo above) for a barbecue and some fireworks. Add that all on top of the pancake breakfast at the church that had started our day, and we had a fabulously fun and full Fourth of July!