May 28 - Memorial Day Weekend Part 1 - The Half Marathon and Parade

If you somehow end up in Spray Oregon on Memorial day weekend, you will find a little town with a population of 200 or so filled with over 5,000 people all gathered together for the Half Marathon and Pro Rodeo, hosted every year. We had the amazing opportunity to be apart of it this year. We started off the day bright and early, the house was buzzing with excitement. We divided up when we got to Spray along the route of the Marathon to give out water to the runners.

My extremely handsome little brother all duded up for the day waiting for the runners to come.

 Several months earlier, in a moment of insanity, I told a variety of friends, cousins, and siblings that I would make them costumes for the parade. We had 3 floats, if you will, in the parade between all of them.
 Shea on his brand new stilts he bought for working in the orchard with a PVC pipe as a blow gun, Garrett and a little friend, Joel, handing him balloons to blow at people. Shea made his own pants, though with a slight measurement problem, so we literally had to glue him into the pants after he had the stilts on. Even though his pants gaped a little bit around the feet of the stilts, it was a big hit.
Gabriel dressed in buckskins and a head band leading a friend, Hannah, on her pony. Hannah was dressed in a plain grey dress with an apron over it and a plaid bonnet. Were representing pioneers from the Oregon trail.
A friend, Jaelle, and Cousin, Dawna, were leading and riding the ever patient horse, Taffy. Both dressed as elegant ladies.
Everyone had a blast and started planning what next years parade will look like as soon as the parade was over. Following are several pictures of the parade, enjoy.