Pioneer Day-ish

Remember a few weeks ago when Bill Cosby's trial was all over the news? Well apparently my takeaway from all that was that Sarah would love the Cosby Show.

And she does.

Erica peeled her own huge carrot and found a small container of ranch in the fridge.

It became less about the carrot and all about the ranch.

"What? I love ranch."

Saturday was Mapleton's Pioneer Day celebration. This is one of my most favorite holidays but for some reason I was not in the mood this year. Justin could do without all the breakfast/parade fun so he wouldn't have cared much if we skipped it this year but I couldn't see how that conversation with the kids would end in anything but tears so I sucked it up.

First off, huge pancakes and fake eggs and 4 oz cartons of orange juice.

And switch so I could be in a picture.

Then we found my family at the elementary school and watched the parade. It's slow and full of gaps. There's always a ton of primary floats and local businesses and candy.

And a lot of fun for the kids.

I thought this was pretty clever. You couldn't help but wave back at their motorized waving arms. The real stake presidency was walking right behind throwing candy.

After a long day of naps/fishing/hanging out at my mom's, we got to the sports park in time for the fireworks. Since we got there at the time when James is usually fast asleep, I was nervous as to how he'd cope with being up so late. Around 9:45 I had to feed him bits of rice krispie treats to keep him happy. During the actual fireworks show he got super excited then bored, then ornery, then excited again.

And because we're never in pictures together:

This is our pretend engagement picture. 12 years this week since our first date!

The rest of my kids just ran around shooting things into the air, eating junk food, playing with cousins.

Erica is telling me she can't find her rocket that she sent into the air.

And lots of building with glow sticks.

Lots of glow sticks.

Even though it was hot and exhausting and I still felt a little blah all day about it all, I'm glad we went. Traditions are important.

Today is actual Pioneer Day but we're spending the day doing laundry and cleaning bedrooms.

James spent much of the day doing this.

I thought his face was funny in this picture. I think he has pink eye.

He's such a big cute stinker of a baby.

I'm posting this picture for the sole purpose that I'll go "awww, they were so little" in a couple of years.

We lit off the rest of our 4th of July fireworks.

There were mostly sparklers.

Erica even got brave and tried a few.

Sarah is writing her name.

I love this picture so much.

That face.

She got the hang of it.

During family home evening, Justin asked the kids what we can do to be like the pioneers, you know, things like being faithful and brave. Erica suggested dressing up in pioneer dresses.