For those reading this, not from Utah and not familiar with its traditions, you may wonder what Pioneer Day is.
I will explain, short and simple. It is a day celebrated, like the 4th of July is celebrated, with parades, and fireworks. We celebrate this special day to remember our ancestors who came across the plains, in handcarts (wagons) to settle the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I have a great great Grandfather named Michael Jensen, who came across in the Willie Handcart Company which makes this a wonderful day for my family to remember.
Yesterday was spent keeping busy with family and friends. We started out the day with a lunch in the park down in Orem with Geoff's dad's side of the family. Actually, his dad was not there because he had to be in Salt Lake to rehearse for a Pioneer day Celebration Show with the tabernacle choir. We had so much fun visiting, and eating pizza, watermelon and cookies, thanks to Carolyn! Family included, Myself, Geoff and Paityn, Anmaree, Carolyn, Tommy and Amelia, Mathew, Anna, Marcus, Connor, and soon to be James, and Ben, Annice and Cole.
The girls chatted, while the boys played frisbee. This was no ordinary frisbee though, it was some type of flying disk, and it sure did fly, almost an entire football field in length. When the guys were done, they were beyond sweaty. It was in the high 90's during the day!
Paityn and Connor enjoyed the swings, and Aunt Milly loved pushing them and playing with them.
After lunch with the family, we headed home to cool off before another outing. We were invited by our friends, the Andersens, to go to the Salt Lake Bee's game for fun and fireworks. We also invited Brandon and Kim, our right hand people, to go with us! Despite scorching heat, and the bright sun for the first hour, we had fun. Paityn kept us busy, as she didn't want to sit still. She also wanted to eat everything in sight. If we got something, we had to remember that half of it would be Paityn's! She loved the dippin' dots ice cream...who wouldn't? We tried to get Paityn her first official ball, but no luck this time. The game was fun, and the Bee's won 9-8, hooray! We ended up leaving at the end of the game and missed out on the fireworks. We did luck out by beating the traffic and seeing fireworks all over the valley on our way home which was nice!
2 comments:
I love dippin dot, I do not blame Paityn. It sounds like a lovely day, with family, food, ball games. It sounds like they were playing disc golf. My son and grandson love that game.
sounds like a lot of fun, and nice you explained pioneer day. I watched a show one time on cable about the handcarts and the people who came across on them and the conditions they had to go through. It was really interesting and amazing to hear the awful conditions some of them went through.
I was in Utah during the 2002 Olympics and I remember how pretty the area was. Looking at the mountains I was amazed how all those pioneers crossed those high mountains on foot and in wagons so long ago.
Sounds like a nice tradition to have every year too.
Nancy
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