Buckeye Parade, Shriners, Horse Show, and Piano...

We did another parade (Buckey Pioneer Days) out in Buckeye last weekend. It was a little dissapointing because it was sooo small. But, we still had fun. Kailey dressed up in our pioneer dress and David dressed up like a cowboy and they drove Magic and walked the baby...

Of course, us girls had fun with pictures...again!

This is my "crazy" but very loved stallion, Warrior...he did so good in the parade and I was REALLY proud of him!!!!!

The camel in the back of this picture brings up a very interesting (and rather frightening) topic! At the staging area, there was a group of people next to us called the Shriners. You may have heard of them. They, along with the Masons, are known for helping hospitals and charity work. While at the parade, we noticed that there was some strange signing going on between them and there was a lot of Middle Eastern influence in their entry...i.e., camels, men dressed like Arabs, etc. When we got home, my mom and I both thought that they reminded us of some sort of cult...so we looked them up on Google. We found some horrifying videos of the way that the candidates are ushered into the group. It is definitely a cult, with some very, very satanic, devil worshipping rituals that go on. When a candidate goes to be accepted, they are greeted "in the name of Allah" and something about "by the holy temple at Mecca" that I don't remember exactly. There is one video of a man claiming that Lucifer is pure, virtuous, wholesome, and something else(???). It was also said that only 2% of the money raised actually goes to charity work. Remember, this is all what I read when I looked it up...I don't know any of this as fact! But, it was enough to make us really leery of anything to do with Shriners or Masons. Anyone else know anything about these groups???

This weekend is the Touch of Class Miniature Horse Show out at WestWorld in Scottsadale...I am so excited! It is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Saturday afternoon I also have the biggest piano competition of the year (Celebration of Music), and I am pretty nervous. We will be at the show, so I will have to get all "fancy" in our friend's barn so we can drive to the competition and then go back to the show, change into jeans again, and stay the rest of the evening at the show!!! Last year, at Celebration, one of the competitiors had to leave early because he was going to the 89.5 KBAQ radio station to record for the radio! These kids are good and it is really stiff competition. Last year, I didn't place, and so my very competitive personality is not wanting to go back again this year and "fail" again. I am also in the Senior High division instead of the Junior High division like last year...so this is the top of the difficulty level. I'm scared....ha ha ha! We'll see...