Pioneer Day!

Warning: 

****Major Photo Overload!****

As many of you know and for those who do not, July 24th is a HUUUUGE holiday here in Utah. It is the day we celebrate our Utah ancestors and therefore refer to this day as "Pioneer Day"! When Brigham Young stood on the hill and pointed to this valley and said, "This is the place!" He wasn't kidding! Little did they know that the locust filled fields they once prayed for would one day become the major route for one of the finest parades around!

We started the day off by attending the parade downtown. We arrived a few minutes late thinking we were going to get crappy seats. Low and behold, there was an area taped off for police officers and their family members, which we just happened to be. Thanks to good ol' Sgt. Dan Holmes! We sat front row under a nice canopy! 

Let's get started! The police motorcade is always at the beginning of the parade. They ride in sync and do all sorts of cool tricks on their motorcycles.  I love this part!

Crazy clowns freak me out. He was no exception.

Wes is helping Emerson get a good look at all the festivities or possibly trying to draw his attention away from crazy clowns.

Me and E. He thought the parade was wicked awesome, just like mom and dad!

I want to sit atop a huge caterpillar with a flower hat just like this kid!!  No fair!

Aren't these floats great!? It takes a huge team of amazing people, a boat load of money and a lot of time and patience to put something like this together. 

I guess they won't be asking me to be on the committee any time soon.

After we hit the parade, we traveled over the river and through the woods to Wallsburg, Utah to meet up with Colett and her family, my parents, and Ralph and Jackie's family. It is a small town hidden between Heber and Sundance and is the home to Ralph and Jackie Yarro's vacation home. Even though they are my brother-in-law's (Matt) family, they feel like my own! We do many things with this family and even find ourselves spending most of our holidays with them so we felt it appropriate to spend this one with them too! The town does a great celebration with a parade, BBQ in the park, kid games, rodeo and talent show! There is nothing more American than a small town celebration! 

The whole town gathers here in this park to kick of the Pioneer Day events!

Emerson being center of attention!

This game was hilarious! They released a bunch of chickens and bunnies into the rodeo arena and then let the kids loose! Whoever catches a chicken or bunny can take it home as a pet!

Nick didn't catch one, but someone gave him their chicken. It is living a peaceful and happy life at the Yarro's place in Wallsburg.

Isabelle and Amelia participated in the "dress a goat" contest!

Isabelle taking a much needed sugar break. I don't think a celebration is complete without cotton candy!

Amelia was adorning us all with the foam stickers she had won from playing the kids games. Stickers on the face meant that you were a princess!

Oh so pretty!

Nick and Tanner dared to go down this death trap. I think this slide and the rest of the playground is circa 1914. It was also about 200 degrees. Toasty buns Nick?

Hanging out in the shady grass. 

Amelia and Sydney eating flavorless snow cones. They were free and who doesn't like something for free?

Sooooo cool in fun foam glasses!

After the Wallsburg adventure, we all packed up and drove to Provo to go swimming at the Yarro's house. There is something about a pool that makes you feel like a kid again! The water was so refreshing after being in the hot sun all day. 

Wes and Nick in a water fight. Wes can seriously plug his nose simply by pressing his upper lip against it! Crazy!

E. in the kiddie pool! He did o.k. until someone would start splashing, then panic 

mode would set in! Toughen up, dude!

Sitting at the pool house and taking a break from such a hard day!

Colett and I having a handstand contest in the pool!

Wes sporting a good look and a sweet farmer's tan!

While at the pool, my sister Colett and I decided to show off our polygamist hairstyles. It is Pioneer Day after all! How did she get so pro at this?

THEN....after a good swim and some delicious pasta, we said goodbye to all the Yarro's and my parents. We ventured back to Salt Lake to meet up with our friends Andrew and Holly. They had just flown back into town after a long vacation in Hawaii! Lucky!  We had dinner at our special place and then headed to Liberty park to see the fireworks. It is a spectacular show and if you can brave the tremendous amounts of dirty people who enjoy beer bongs, not visiting the dentist and combing their mullets, then you are one of us! Seriously, we were outside in a park and my hair reeked of cigarettes! We were a minority in every way, shape and form! It was quite entertaining!

I could not resist taking advantage of this sweet opportunity. On the walk to the park, I noticed this swing in someones tree! I think I need one now!

This is Wes and Andrew throwing what they believe to be "gang signs". 

They felt the need to fit in with our surroundings! 

Can someone please tell me how to take a good picture of fireworks?

So tan and refreshed....straight off the beach! 

Our little family! It was 11:00 and Emerson was calling it quits.

BFF! Nuff' said!

It was seriously one of those days where you lay in bed at night with a smile on your face because you can't stop thinking of how perfect your day was!

We are so lucky to be part of this great state and for all that our ancestors sacrificed. What strong and dedicated people they were and we are very thankful for all they endured to make a better life for themselves and their posterity!

A Day for a Date!

Even though Wes and I spend a lot of time together, it is usually spent running errands, working on the house or hanging out with friends. Today we decided to have my mom and dad watch Emerson while we went on a date and engaged in a little sport that we both love and admire, but rarely get to do: GOLF! We headed to the Cedar Hills Golf Course dressed in our finest golf gear: Pumas, Vans and cargos!

I had to make it very clear to Wes before we tee'd off that we were not going to keep score and that this was not a competition between us. I just wanted to go have fun! After playing the first few holes, I realized that conversation was not needed! Since neither of us have been able to go golfing for quite some time (I was prego all last summer) we didn't do real well! A few good shots here and there but for the most part, our game was weak. We laughed a lot and made fun of ourselves more! We even made a sport out of combing the out of bounds areas to find any hiding golf balls lost by previous golfers! As many as we found (and we found A LOT) we still didn't even out with as many as we had lost. We left with our bags feeling much lighter than when we came, our pride a little bruised but our heads held high! Hopefully we didn't pick up any ticks or poison ivy while we were at it!

It was such a great day and I can't wait for the next 1 on 1 date we have!

Little Known Facts:

Amy has been golfing for 20 years.

Amy's whole family golfs.

Amy was on the varsity golf team and lettered as a freshman in High School.

Amy is in love with this sport!

Amy really needs to practice more.

Who in the world plays with orange golf balls? Wes does!

Looked like it was going in, but no...it didn't.

Out of bounds! Watch out for creepy crawlies!

Seriously...watch out!

Thinking to myself "keep your shoulder and weight behind the ball!" It ended up in the water.

The score card says 465 yards, but I'm thinking more like 900!

Thank you for a wonderful date, honey! I love you!!!

Beauty All Around!

Attention all family, friends and blogstalkers:

There are several "tags" in the blog world. There is the classic "questionnaire" tag to learn juicy and unknown facts about people, there is the "what's in your purse" tag that Colett did and the "respond to questions using only google images as your answers" tag. They are all fun to do and even more so, read, but I came up with a new one! It's called "What's Lurking in Your Yard"? My mother always taught me that there is beauty in all things. I took the challenge after a long hard look at our devastating yard a few days ago. Wes sprayed a chemical in our yard to kill all the grass so that we can bring in top soil and sod and start new. It is a bleak and brown sight. I thought, "there is nothing interesting or beautiful about this crap hole!" Low and behold I was incorrect. Emerson and I took a little nature hike through the yard and this is what we found. I now see our yard in a whole new way!

This was taken a few weeks ago. They are not living in the birdhouse anymore, but it sure was fun while it lasted! Sorry to disturb your slumber, guys!

My mom and I went for a walk a few months ago and I stumbled upon this fabulous succulent. I dug it up and planted it in my yard. It's pretty much the only living thing we have now. 

My beautiful Zebra Finch died recently. We owned her for 4 years and I felt it necessary to give her a proper burial. RIP my sweet Rosie!

This is a huge ball of sap seeping from our apricot tree. Looks like snot but still very cool.

Thanks to the previous owners of the house, we now own a sprinkler from 1984.

These are everywhere. Has anyone seen my salt shaker? I do like seeing their trail on the sidewalks, however. I often wonder how long it took them to get where they were going and if they even know where they are going.

Apparently this a. hole doesn't know we don't want roommates. Move out, NOW!

We have a huge apricot tree in the backyard that feeds all the birds in Salt Lake County when these babies are ripe. We quickly learned to move the picnic table somewhere other than under the tree!

O.k. I cheated on this one. This flower isn't "officially" in our yard. It's in our neighbor's yard but it was leaning very much into ours so I think it counts.

We have lots of lumber laying around as we are trying to finish our deck. I like the colors and pattern it makes.

This Albertson's bag has been stuck in our tree for at least 6 months. It's about 20 feet in the air so what do you do? What I do is stare at it every day because it is right in front of our bedroom window.

This is very cool. The tree has grown around the rock in our front yard. It cannot be moved even the slightest!

Beautiful ground cover under our big tree. I love this stuff. It's like a billion little roses all over, just for me! 

This also was taken a few weeks ago. The smell was fantastic! I may have picked a few and sucked the nectar out, just like when I was a little girl.

Wes and I really look forward to this moment each year. This is how you know summer has officially arrived! It makes me all warm inside to see the quail couples with their darling babies run, run, run all over the neighborhood. Why won't they just fly to get out of the way of traffic?

 

This is an old newspaper we found after tearing out our yucky bushes this week. I think the color and texture is pretty cool! Nice shot paperboy. I wonder if he got his two dollars that week!

Well, now it is your turn. Let's see what wonderful things are in your yard! 

Tag, you're it!