Johnstown BBQ Days

The event of the year in Johnstown is BBQ Days, and we'd been hearing all about it since even before we moved in.  The day starts off with the Firemen Pancake Breakfast, and the firemen get everyone up and out of their beds by driving their fire trucks through town with the sirens blaring at 5 in the morning.  We were lucky and the sirens didn't wake any of us up!  We opted out of the breakfast, but the kids and I headed over to the parade route while Dave drove to Fort Collins for a golf tournament hosted by one of his subcontractors.  We are used to parades in Utah, where you have to save your spots early on and the crowds are incredible.  I was pleasantly surprised that we could show up about 20 minutes before the start of the parade and get great parking and good seats right on the curb.  Definitely my kind of crowds!

Waiting for the parade to start.

 The parade was great. There weren't a lot of floats, but tons of vehicles and politicians.  It was the candy and popsicles that were handed out that made it fun! We couldn't even keep up with all the Otter Pops that were handed out.

When the parade was over we followed it down the road until it stopped at the park.  The carnival was going on there, with tons of free activities, booths, and food vendors.  We splurged and tried funnel cake and fried Oreos (YUM!!!), jumped in the bounce houses, watched a duck race, visited with friends, and enjoyed watching others try out the hamster balls and the giant obstacle course.  We thought it was great.

That night, Grandpa and Grandma came and went with all of us to see Nonsense in the North Woods, a hilarious musical put on by our community.  There were tons of members of our ward in the play, and we laughed and laughed.  It was my favorite part of the day.

When the play was over we headed out of the auditorium and watched a great fireworks show.  It was a pretty awesome day and made us understand why everyone was always talking about BBQ Days!  We love our little town and all the people and traditions that make it wonderful.  The only drawback to the day was that someone ran into our van and didn't leave a note or anything, so our van has a big dent in it...