Slip and Slide Billboard Style

Each of the past couple of summers we've been invited to join the family billboard-size slip-and-slide party. It's fun for all ages, and doesn't have to be limited to just family. Here's how to make it happen:

What You'll Need 

people (family, friends, neighbors, ...)

food
sunscreen

1 billboard-size tarp (you may be able to score one from a billboard company)

4+ stakes

1 water source (irrigation water works)

hose(s)
other toys

How Long You'll Be There

4 hours (has been known to last 6 to 8 hours)

Getting Ready

Pick a date and invite people to the party. Have them bring some food. Exact mixture of people is not as important as ensuring you get enough of them. The more the merrier. It is the people, relatives or otherwise, that make this recipe for a fun Saturday in Davis County work.

Participating

Head to your favorite pasture with a gradually sloping hill. Release the cows into the next pasture over. Clean up as much cow dung as you feel necessary. You'll be running around in bare feet, so keep that in mind when you think you've removed enough dung. Lay out billboard-sized tarp. Stake tarp to the ground, a stake on each corner of the uphill side, and a stake further down (10-20 feet) on each side. Attach hose to water source, turn water on, spray tarp. From the uphill side, get a running start and jump onto the wet tarp. Slip. Slide. Splash. Laugh.

After an hour or two, set food out and let people eat, visit, rest. Return to the pasture for a game of baseball. Use slide as third base line. Don't keep score.

My Favorite Part

• 4-year Old: "When I was on the other side, when you wanted to try." 
• 6-year Old: "I just liked...I liked like every part."
• Mom: "Watching the kids enjoy themselves."
• Dad: "Getting to play with the boys, especially helping them get a little more speed on the slide."

Things to Watch Out For

Cow dung. And dehydration. On a hot summer day your chances of becoming dehydrated are high. Even though you're in the water, make sure you drink extra water to stay hydrated.

Extras

The boys really liked having their Dad fling them down the slide. We'd run to the slide together and then, once we were both sliding, I'd throw them down the slide. A good transfer of momentum allowed them to get to the bottom of the slide. They typically wouldn't be able to get that far down. This is what the 4-year old was referring to in his favorite part comment above. Typically I had the boys on my right side, but he kept asking me to do it from the other side. I finally gave in, it didn't work very well, and so we went back to the original way of doing it. The 6-year old went down with me a couple times, but he's too grown up for that now.

And of course there was a lot of group slides, tricks from the older sliders, and some spectacular crashes. Be careful and have fun.

Festival Peruano en Utah

This little festival is a fun way to spend a Friday or Saturday night in mid-July.

What You'll Need

sunscreen (depending on what time of day you attend)

snack foods for the little ones

cash (optional)

Getting Ready

The only prep work needed for this festival is getting a bit of cash for dinner, treats, and the activities at some of the booths.

Participating

There's plenty of room in the park, and the crowds aren't too big. We showed up on Saturday afternoon (about 4:00 p.m.) and found parking at the elementary school across from the park.

There are several choices for food, and it is good, but you'll need those snacks for the less adventurous eaters in the family. One of our boys tried some of the food we bought (I'd tell you what it was called, but I have no idea). The other didn't.

The entertainment includes mostly Peruvian song and dance, but there were a couple dances that featured other Central and South American cultures.

My Favorite Part

4-year old: "I liked nothing."

6-year old: "I liked the racing game."

Mom: "The food!"

Dad: "I enjoy watching how groups of people from different cultures interact with each other. In some ways the interactions are very distinct, and it is fun to see the differences."

Extras

Our 6-year old liked the fact that someone had a booth with a video game system and a TV. We let him watch for a couple minutes while Mom talked to someone she ran into. As you can tell from the picture above, he also liked the food.

Our 4-year old was annoyed at his parents when we asked him what his favorite part was. He really wanted to play in the bouncy house, but his parents spent the entire budget trying the different foods that were available, so we didn't have the $1 for a 10-minute excursion in the bouncy house. Both boys had a good time playing around, and of course they enjoyed the candy and other giveaways they got at the booths.
The festival starts Friday evening, and then picks back up mid-day Saturday and runs through Saturday evening. That gives you two days to carve out some time to participate. You can find more information on their web site, http://www.utahperufestival.com/.

One of the other festival-goers told us that there are several Peruvian Festivals that occur throughout the summer. We did a little searching and found another coming up on July 28, 2012 at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Salt Lake City (279 S 300 W). You can learn more by searching for "Peru" on http://www.nowplayingutah.com/.

Parade Time

With both Independence Day and Pioneer Day in the month of July, there are plenty of chances to catch a parade or two. Local parades include high school and middle school bands, floats, candy, and loud sirens and horns that break young children down and leave them begging to go home. Reminding them that there is candy coming usually helps them bear the noise a little better.

What You'll Need

Camp or lawn chair(s)
Blanket(s)
Sunscreen
Umbrella(s) and/or canopy
Soft toy
Water
Bag(s) for candy
Bag for candy wrappers

How Long You'll Be There

Depending on the size of the parade, expect 2 - 3 hours of time.

Getting Ready

Depending on the size of your local parade, you'll want to arrive 30 minutes to an hour early. And by "arrive" we mean be sitting in your seat. If you want to, go out and reserve your spot along the parade route. Blankets and chairs are commonly left out, and seem to stay there overnight. We've found that for Centerville's 4th of July Parade and Farmington's Festival Days Parade we can just show up a bit before start time and get a good enough spot. The Bountiful Handcart Days parade is a different story. If you want a spot, you'll have to stake it out early or time it so that you arrive as they block off the side streets (this is our strategy when we go to this parade).

Watching the Parade

Each item on our What You'll Need list has its own use. You can probably figure out what to do with most of the items, so we'll jump to the soft toy. If you have small children, the toy will be used as a distraction in the minutes or hours prior to the start of the parade. The softer the toy, the less likely fellow parade-goers will be injured when children, or dads, start throwing it around.

In addition to providing shade, a good umbrella can come in handy when baseball teams roll by with their squirt guns.

My Favorite Part

4-year old: "I only like parts where there's candy."
6-year old: "I like the Jazz Bear and the Bee."
Mom: "I like the community feeling, and I love it when veterans go by."
Dad: "I like seeing the floats and the entries that highlight aspects of the community, such as middle and high schools, city councils, and others that have served our communities."

Extras

As you can see in the pictures above, our boys aren't fans of loud noises. Our older boy has always had a hard time with loud noises. For that reason, he's never liked fireworks. The 4-year old has liked fireworks for the last couple of years, but this year he seems to have learned from his big brother that loud things are scary. So at the parades, they get Grandma and Grandpa to help them hold their ears.

For the last few years, one of the last entries in the Farmington Festival Days parade has been throwing out stuffed animals.

This year's Bountiful Handcart Days Parade featured an entry with over 2000 young men dressed to honor the principles embodied by the 2060 Stripling Warriors, who fought valiantly for their liberty (see Alma 56-58 in the Book of Mormon).

If you stick around after Kaysville's 4th of July Parade you can participate in what might be the largest community water fight in Davis County (if you know better, please let us know). Check Kaysville's community events pages to see which section of the route will be the water section of the parade.