Parade Saturday....Swiss Days

The last parade of the season we are headed to Santa Clara this weekend.  They are celebrating with Swiss Days a 5k, pancake breakfast, and parade.  All starting or finishing on their one main street.  There are people & cars every where.  The parade starts on the opposite end of town which means we have to drive right down the middle of their party.  Then we have to drive back to find a spot to watch.

Waiting not so patiently.
Everyone passes the time on their devices.
Me I take pictures.

Here we go....
Love the the JROTC Group
was carrying the flags and marching.

Screaming for our girls.

The kids love the royalties

Not as much candy as last week but a whole lot more kids this week.  The floats, marching bands, and royalties made it fun to watch.  I was told there are two more parades one in October and one in November.  It will definitely be cooler for those.

Dixie Round Up Parade

This is my favorite parade of the whole year in Washington County.  There have been many changes of the years but the one thing remains the same it draws a large crowd, a lot of candy, and a lot of entries of all varieties.  One change they made a couple of years ago was moving it to the morning instead of the late afternoon.  It was a whole lot cooler.

Time to start...
It still took 10 minutes to make it 2 blocks to us.

Rodeo Clown...Randy Munns
He still dresses up his horse and
has more energy than the crowd.

Marching Bands!!
They make the parade
All the high schools were represented.
We counted how many baritones were in each.

Our Royalty!!

I love their craziness
I guess they are really reacting to me
and all my cheering.

Once again they didn't disappoint or scrimp on the candy.  We came home with a large bag full.  Ryder's highlight was Yogartland's free cups.  He didn't share of course but secretly slurped it down.  This parade lasted an hour.  It took us a little while to connect with the royalty.  We got to watch the entries once again at the end.

We had just enough time to get home, change our clothes, and head next door to Andrea DeMacedo's wedding.  She looked beautiful and the ceremony was great due the stand up comedy / minister.  

There was even more that need to be done.  Ryder's birthday needed to be celebrated.  I definitely need a weekend to recover from this weekend.  All I want to do is sleep.

The Big 12!!!

It's Ryder's birthday!!! He is 12 years old and is ready to conquer the world.  It is getting harder each year to find enough time in one day to celebrate with everyone.  This is his celebration week.  We started the day off with a quick snuggle and happy birthday song before getting ready for school.  He rode off on his bike hoping for a great day.  He had a great day with a lot of birthday wishes from friends & teachers.  He did request that he skip swim and we hang out together.

Costa Vida for dinner.
He makes a great dinner date.

Time for presents.
Amazon does a great gift wrapping job.

Got just what he wanted.
A FitBit Acer 2 w/ extra bands.
Of course he added them to my cart.

Saturday, was time for more celebrating with lunch at Pancho & Lefty's not so much for the yummy food but for the even yummier fried ice cream.

Everyone together!!!
We are missing Julie & Jacy.

Love the hat
and yummy fried ice cream with lot's of
whip cream.

Another present...
He was sure he knew what it was.
Then he started second guessing himself.
Yes, it's an external hard drive for your games.

He begged for more family time.  It was off to Fiesta Fun for some miniature golf.  There were 8 of us playing which could have been really long.  Instead we kept it interesting by not waiting for everyone before moving in.  Soon we were separated into 2 groups and yelling back and for our scores.

One group...Sort of

Dave & Reganne
goofing around and laughing at each other.
Trying to keep the other one from completing.

The final hole.
The last group needing cheering on
or snickering at us.  I am not sure.

Surprise!!!! Saturday was so busy there wasn't enough time to cake & ice cream.  However, Dave & Ryder went for a drive to check out a car show in Mesquite.  I decided to make him a big cookie instead and have it ready for him when they got back.

Looks pretty good.
A lot of chocolate w/ 12 candles.

Stop laughing and blow
Please don't spit!!!

One more try
It took 3 more tries before getting all
12 out.
No birthday wish this year.

It was a good change to have a cookie.  However, he informed me that my recipe doesn't match up to his friend's mom's recipe.  Please text her and try again.  

We hope that he had a fun week with all the different ways of celebrating separately or together.  The one thing for sure is he is growing up way to fast.  Next year he will be a teenager.  My hair will definitely be white.

2019 Fall Fling Swim Meet

Short Course Season started in August with new teams and coaches.  2 1/2 weeks later it was time to show their stuff.  This meet is a SUSA team event and Ryder has 9 events.

The pool is quiet
The kids are checking in with coaches.
Warm ups are minutes away.

Officiating for Friday night was going to be in my usual spot at the starting blocks.  Thank goodness I wore shorts because I was drenched before the last event of the night.  The events moved smoothly and we were done by 7:00.

Check in was set for 7:00 am but due to scheduling conflicts it was moved back to 8.  This was better for me and extra hour of sleep.  Except Ryder demanded that we leave by 7:30 so he would have time to warm up.  I believe its so he can be first in the pool.

Slow motion start

Look how far they can go!

Today's events were going to be a hard workout.  The 500 meter freestyle was going to be tough.  They each needed a counter and with everyone swimming the events parents needed to step up.  I found my spot and began counting.  My biggest task was not falling in and keeping the correct count.  I was a success and Ryder wasn't mad at me for embarrassing him.

I was assigned to be Chief Official which means walking a round the pool gather DQ's and bringing them back to the Referee.  It was more exhausting to circle the pool than standing watching each event.  I wasn't soaked today.

His official statistics:

Mixed 50 Freestyle 12 and under, 8th overall, 34:77

Mixed 100 Freestyle 12 and under,  4th overall, 1:25.08

Mixed 50 Breast 12 and under, 3rd overall, 45:46

Mixed 100 Fly 12 and under, 6th overall, 1:37.41

Mixed 100 Freestyle 12 and under, 4th overall, 1:18.42

Open 500 Freestyle, 35th overall,  7:33.01

Mixed 100 Breast 12 and under, 6th overall, 1:48.74
Mixed 50 Fly 12 and under, 2nd overall, 43:57
Mixed 100 IM 12 and under, 2nd overall, 1:26.91

He did great and all the stress of group, coach, and time changes didn't slow him down.  The next meet is 3 weeks away.

Another City Celebration...

Ivin's Heritage Days... Rylee was begging to drive the Corvette but is had a minor issue on Friday Night and was out of commission until Dave could climb under the hood.  They didn't want to drag the float for just the 2 of them.  Jen got another classy red car for the morning.  As we sat waiting for the parade to start we made a discovery.  We weren't sitting at the first of the parade.  They were all moving right on by.  Ryder & I quickly moved and just in time to get some candy.

Rylee & Anislee
Getting their waves on.

Close ups

We moved back around the corner by the fire station and discovered we were now at the end of the parade.  Funny that you can move 100 feet and see everything twice.

Scooping up the candy.

I loved the background on
this side.  The red rocks really look
great as a back drop.

All that work and the parade lasted a 1/2 hour.  It was short and sweet!!! We also rake in enough candy to fill the candy dish at home for another week.

Labor Day Weekend

Everyone loves a holiday weekend a time to relax, sleep in, and even barbecue.  Before we can relax and enjoy it was time for Peach Days in Hurricane.  Hurricane nows how to celebrate and everyone comes out to enjoy all the fun.

Love the floats
This one was for a towing company.

This parade even
has the marching band.
That is what has been missing from
the other parades.

These girls were
all smiles and enjoying sitting down.

It was now time to head to the lake and have some fun with the new kayaks that Dave & Ryder bought a few weeks ago.  Dave, Ryder, and Reganne have all been out playing but now it's my turn.  My greatest fear is tipping over and getting wet.  We are off to Quail Creek.

Dang!!!
They are heavy and require 2 people.
Not one that is too clumsy.

I did it.
But not without a few mishaps.
I didn't fall in but instead went around in circles.
Between Dave & Ryder yelling instructions
and me trying to follow was not a good combo.

Reganne swimming
and Ryder relaxing in the kayak.
This is definitely a work out.

It was a fun afternoon and the hopefully the sore muscles will wait until Tuesday to appear.  Monday morning time to head back to the lake for some boating.  Arriving early meant it was cloudy and a little windy.

Reganne was
the first one in and soon
reported that it was still a little chilly.

Ryder didn't believe her
and quickly jumped in.
He discovered that she wasn't lying.

Ryder & Reganne
It was too rough to knee board
so tubing was next on the agenda.

Rylee & Ryder
After much begging Rylee decided to
take a turn.

So boring!!!
They decided to sit up and
turn around .
That was fun and declared it a must
do next time.

The wind picked up it was time to get off.  The dock was full of people doing the same thing.  It required 3 of us to hold on tight to the boat while Dave brought the trailer down.  Hopefully, we can fit one more trip in this year.  However, it was time for Rylee to head to work and the rest of us to barbecue with the Wheelers.

It was another crazy busy holiday weekend.  We enjoyed our time together and enjoy these last days of summer.  As the days start cooling off we look forward to more adventures in Zion's or even more kayaking.

Wrapping Up August

Another crazy month coming to an end.  I found a few more pictures that needed to be shared.

Royalty posing for
crazy pictures @ the fair.

The audience are all
on their phones.
It seems that now when we sit
our phones come out.

Ryder & his new bike
He is off to school way before
the rest of us.

Starting the new school year
with new friends

Dad's Deals
Now the question is will they get used?

New breakfast treat
Just like Denny's Hush Puppies
At last something everyone likes
and will eat.

The month is ending on a holiday weekend.  We still have a few weeks left for some summer fun on the weekends.  We just need to find an open weekend before it starts getting cold.