Dairy Days is here!

This week is the annual Dairy Days celebration here in Meridian, Idaho. This celebration is always held on the third week of June and started in 1929. Many of you who are not from here may say "What are Dairy Days?" or think to yourselves "Man, those Idahoans sure are weird... they celebrate cows?!?!?". It is a very fun week filled with a lot of fun events, especially for the children. I remember what a big event it was every summer. It usually starts out with the local businesses here in town making fun cow signs to display in their front lawns or window displays. Its kinda neat to drive down Main St. and see all of the different displays.

The Dairy Days Festival begins on Thursday night in Storey Park with a Pancake Feed followed by a free concert by the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. The pancake feed is held in one of the barn structures at the park between the park and the speedway. They usually have pancakes, eggs, and fresh milk. The only bad thing is that the milk isn't as cold as I'd like it to be.

Friday night is the annual Dairy Days parade. I love the parade. It's always held on Main St. and makes a big loop through the middle of town and back to Storey Park. It's always neat because they hand out free milk cartons (usually chocolate milk) during the parade. There is always the shriners on their little carts, horses (lots and lots of them), the rodeo queens, dairy days princesses and many other things.

They also have a carnival set up by the speedway with a lot of rides for kids to go on and there is face painting, etc. Saturday morning begins with the annual “Milk Run” fun run at Meridian Speedway. Little tykes can participate in a ¼ mile run around the track, and then the older kids and adults do a 5K race that starts and ends at the Speedway. Other events include: the Dairy Princess Banquet, a carnival, a farm animal education exhibition and dairy cattle and dairy goat shows. I truly feel that this is a great family celebration and I can't wait until Rylan is old enough to truly appreciate it and enjoy it.

These photos were not taken by me.