Orem Festival Days 2012

Orem City Baby Contest 2012

Each year during they Orem City Festival, a Baby Contest is held.  Last year we wanted to enter Millie,  but we were going to be out of town.  I completely forgot about this year until a couple stopped me in the Grocery Story and told me that I just had to enter Ruthie into the Orem City Baby Contest.  I went home and looked it up online, and sure enough, the contest was being held that Saturday.  I talked about it with John and we thought it would be fun.

On the day of the contest, we arrived and waited in the long line just to enter the building.  As we were about to pay for Ruthie to enter, we decided to enter Millie too. The age qualification was 0-36 months.  Millie was exactly 36 months, so we thought, why not!  We entered Ruthie into the 10-12 month age group and Millie into the 34-36 age group.  We felt good about our chances until we entered the gym.  There were hundreds and hundreds of children and parents waiting to be seen by the judges.  We just thought, well, we are doing this for fun anyway so let's just see what happens.

Judging was from 9-12 noon.  After our children were judged, we were excused and asked to come back at 3:30 for the award ceremony.  At 3:30, we entered the very crowded gym and waited for the announcer to begin.  We were told that if our child's name was called, that we were to make our way down the center isle to claim our prize.  We were also told that each First Prize winner would get to ride on the Baby Contest Winner float that night in the parade. 

We cheered loudly as "Ruthie Guymon" was called for First Place in her age group.  The room cheered loudly as Ruthie stood on John's hands smiling as he walked down the isle to claim her prize.  Millie and I stayed in the room as we waited for her age group.  By this time, Millie had fallen asleep in the stroller.  As the announcer called out "Millie Guymon" as the First Place winner in her age group, I jumped up and cheered.  Millie stayed asleep, but was quick to wake up when she got her prize. The prizes were gift baskets. Each gift basket had prizes worth $300.  They also got pink t-shirts to wear in the parade that night.  Each child could only have one parent accompany them on the float.  Because both girls won, however, all four of us got to be in the parade.  

The weather that night was cold and windy!  We bundled up and headed to the parade.  Millie wanted candy to throw out to the little children, so John bought salt water taffy to take with us on the float. Millie loved throwing out candy one piece at a time.  Ruth only lasted 15 minutes before the cold got too much.  Emily was in the parade too because of her achievement in the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival.  Mom and Dad Guymon came to support all of us, along with Mark, Kimmie and little Olivia. Overall, it was a fun experience!