Floating Your Family Tree

The above float is the product of my former stake, ward, and good buddies in the Sandy Cameo Park Ward.  Notice the awe in the stance of the woman to the left?  It's deserved for certain.  Its title:  "Who's in your family tree?"  That's an owl in front if you're a fan of puns.  

That's the genealogy of Stan Lindaas a little above and to the left of center because it was he who I think headed up the committee which is weird because a) he is a genealogist who are a group that I would hardly think are right-brained in the least and b) he sports only one hand (I don't know what happened to the other one.)  Who in  the right mind would have put a "disabled" man (If you knew knew Stan you would be shouting "Ha!!" at this point.)  in charge of a "Days of 47" float? 

Also involved in construction was my dentist, Dave Powell! and likely others who shall remain nameless, sorrowfully.  

It was gorgeous and I voted for it.  Watch for it in the Parade tomorrow morning.

Here's another float I quite enjoyed.  The title is "Turning Trials into Treats".  There are 163 crickets on this float -- one for each of the years since the event when the seagulls arrived to save the day and ate the crickets that were ruining the pioneers' day by eating the pioneers' crops -- one of our all-time favorite miracles.  

We talked to the designer-creator-workers and found out one of the secrets was that the man's mission president's family was named "Gull" and each of the gulls represented one of each of his family members.  It was funny to see cricket eyes on each of the cookies.  A little gruesome religious humor.  There was lots of funny detail and clever inside jokes.

I love this tradition of the Days of 47 Parade.  I remember going to the Parade with my grandparents and parents, walking through Liberty Park and enjoying the Parade with my cousins sitting on the curb.  I don't remember where we sat, but there definitely weren't the crowds, there definitely weren't the campouts preceding, but I do remember bit scary clowns.  

So my new tradition is going to be watching the Parade from my own home, from my couch where it's cool, it's not crowded and where there  parking is not at a premium.  And the only scary clown is Carl.