Freedom Festival Baby Contest

When Ady was a baby, I thought it would be fun to enter her in the Freedom Festival Baby Contest. It turned into disaster when I gave her balloon and she let go of it as soon as it was her turn to see the judges, after waiting in line forever.

She was extremely unhappy, and we just laugh about it now!! We were planning on spending the 4th with Dale's family in Provo this year, so looked up the baby contest for fun. They opened a new age range of 31-42 months. We thought it would be fun to enter Brayden.

So on Friday I drove down to Draper, went to IKEA to grab some things for school, picked Dale up from work, and went to Provo to stay with his parents. We ate dinner and then went bowling at BYU. We had such a good time! Lynette and Ady were the professional bowlers- Ady bowled a 132 (with bumpers, but STILL!!!) We laughed and laughed! After, we went to the Creamery and got some ice cream to celebrate! The next day we had a barbeque, and then got Brayden ready for the baby contest.

It was at UVU this year. There were tons of babies there, and some moms go all out with costumes, but Brayden was happy with his USA Dog shirt, plaid shorts, and his 2 American Flags to wave around. We checked him in and then went to see the judges.

He had told us he would sing a song, but we never know what kind of mood Bray will be in, so didn't know what he'd do. The judges just started to talk to him. "What is your favorite animal?" Bray: "Doggy." "What does a doggy say?" Bray: "Woof!" Then she asked him his favorite animal at the zoo-- a monkey.... they just had a cute little conversation, and then he started singing, "I am a Child of God." (It's Provo!! We're good!) It was adorable! The judges clapped and said thank for coming and we walked around. There was a movie playing that we went up to watch while we waited for the awards.

There were many categories, and we weren't expecting much, but were excited to see what happened. They called his category- 31-42 month boys: Brayden Jakins, 2nd place!!! His eyes lit up and I took him up to the front and collected his "present." He was so excited!! In the present was a medal and some treats, and also parade information, because he gets to be in the Freedom Festival Parade on July 5th!

Afterwards, they took pictures of the kids that had won!!! It was adorable! Brayden was eating up the attention, and making all sorts of faces!! He loved his medal, too.

We had such a good time, and were "proud" parents!! I think it was great for Bray- he's so used to seeing Ady and Clay get all the attention during their sports, so maybe that's how he knew how to eat up the attention... who knows!! But now he won't take off the medal. He wore it to church on Sunday, to the grocery store, to Walmart... everyone now knows that Brayden won, thanks to him showing people and telling them. We have created a monster!! At least it's a cute monster!