Days of 47 Parade

At midnight they led all the floats down the freeway to our queuing position in front of the Salt Palace. Our float was number 97 out of 114 entries, so we had a long wait. Somewhere along the way our camera died, so we drove her down the parade totally blind. Ben and Becky walked on either side with walkies-talkies and Bob drove on faith. We made it down the 45 minute route with no incidents at all, other than Bob getting a little loopy from the fumes at the very end. What a great experience!

We didn't hit the parade route until 10:35, so we had a long wait.

Waiting to start.

Inching down the line to enter the parade.

We drove right past temple square.

We're on TV!! KSL read the long story about our float.

Going down state street. Some of our turns were touch and go but we did great on the straight.

These two banner walkers were youth from Magna Stake. Their stake got the assignment for all the banners.

We understood why we were given a height limit.

All along the route people pointed and commented about the sheep. They loved the sheep.

The crowd was quite dense all along the way.

Bob, our driver, was covered in sweat when he crawled out from under the float.

She didn't break down and we didn't crash into anything. We did great!!!

Winner of the Hilda Erickson Award!

The judges came by our float early this morning as we lined up for the parade route . One of the judges told us later that our float was the most contended amount the pioneer awards, they all wanted us.  In the end we received a new award called the Hilda Erickson Award.   Sister Erickson was one of the last living pioneers and this award is given to a float that is honoring pioneer industry and creativity (or something like that).   We felt so happy (and relieved) to get an award. We worked so hard and it was nice to get some recognition.

Bob & Debbie and Kristen hold up our banner while as we queue for the parade.