Pioneer Days

Ah traditions. Here we are again at the Mapleton Pioneer Day Extravaganza!! It's the one time of year we honor our pioneer heritage by eating fake eggs and frozen juice. My parents were sick and my sisters didn't come to the breakfast so it was up to the Dyes to represent.

 Taking selfies will never come naturally to me. I am of a different generation. But until I can trust Sarah to not chop our heads off, I'll try.

 Then to our usual spot to watch the parade and we met up with my sister and her family and Justin's parents.

All the kids really care about is the candy.

 James was pretty whiny so I let him have candy so then he was sticky but slightly more pleasant.

I thought this train of 50 gallon barrels was pretty creative and funny to watch.

 Then we high-tailed it outta there and went to the Scera Pool in Orem where our neighbors kindly rented out the whole pool for their friends and family. There were only like 50 of us which is the perfect amount for a public pool.

 The kids went down the waterslide so many times and Sarah and Erica had fun jumping off the diving board.

Then we went home, James took a nap, I shopped in vain for mallow bits for some cookies I wanted to make, I started to feel ill and took a nap. Then we got some sandwiches and went back to a different park in Mapleton for the fireworks.

Helicopter dropping ping pong balls to win a bike.

 I was so happy it was cloudy and not so hot.

 And then the wind and rain started.

 Erica and I huddled under blanket for a few minutes before the blanket go soaked and we had to join the crowded canopy.

 

We were having a great time but it did start to get a little soggy under here.

 I don't know why I'm making that face but this is just to show how much James was freaking out. It was pretty chaotic. It poured pretty hard for nearly an hour maybe. People were running around shrieking, packing up. By the time the rain let up, only 1/3 of the crowd was left. I thought it was exciting. Sarah is a pioneer at heart so this weather doesn't intimidate her at all.

My boys on the other hand....

We all emerged from our shelters and people started trickling back in. I'm not sure if they were people that returned or new people.

Once the sun went down, we were still pretty wet so we got cold! What a weird feeling.

 The kids live for glowsticks. I love seeing the creative things they come up with.

 After an hour delay, the concert finally started--which I was fine with since the concert is my least favorite part of the night. 

Then we spread out our damp blankets, laid down to watch the fireworks which never disappoint. Hooray for pioneers!

So that was Saturday, July 21. On REAL pioneer day, I took the kids to my parents' house who were feeling better and I made breakfast and we watched the parade together. Then Sarah touched a dead mouse in an old slide projector she found in my mom's storage room. Everyone has a mouse story, now Sarah has one too.  Justin got home early from work, we grilled burgers, ate these cookies, rode bikes in the sunset and put the kids to bed. We could see fireworks from the rodeo grounds before Justin and I went to bed at 10:45.

Saturday July 28, since my parents missed out on all the fun, we had a late pioneer celebration at their house complete with pioneer activities, homemade rootbeer and sandwiches.

Sarah and Allison are playing a game where you blow up a balloon and then use the air to blow cups off the table.

 Outside we dipped candles. I hadn't done this since I was a teenager and we did it a lot back then. Usually things escalated to dipping our hands but for the kids, we stuck with candles.

I talked Justin into dipping his fingers. It only burns for the few first layers then the wax protects you.


I'm so proud of my candles!


And I'm so proud of my pioneer ancestors who would probably laugh that we make candles for the novelty and not the necessity.

Park Day, Ice Cream Day, Hair Day, Friend Day

Since summer and it's relentless heat are my nemesis, I've tried to adapt our schedule so that we do things before the earth is an inferno each day. Instead of lunch at the park we do breakfast at the park. "Get in the car. I don't care if you wear your pajamas but you do have to wear shoes. Hurry! It's almost 80 degrees already!" Bags of cereal, milk in a thermos, paper bowls and spoons. 

My kids are going to look back and think I was such an inventive and creative mom or that I was paranoid and eccentric. About 5 minutes after I took this picture Henry got stung by a wasp and we had to book it home. I get points for trying.

Since there are no houses I want to buy and builders are building houses I don't want to build, I drew up my own dreamhouse. I used to make life-size floorplans of houses out of leaves on our lawn as a kid so I'm practically an architect anyway. Justin has been helping me draw it in Autocad and if we are ever able to build this for real, I'm framing this  not-to-scale brainstorming drawing and hanging it in the office.

July 15 was National Ice Cream day so we made waffle cones. My kids had never seen my waffle cone iron which I feel really bad about. 

 Beyond the traditional cone, we wrap the waffles over bowls, plates, and handles.

 This mega taco shell was made by wrapping the rolling pin.

 Erica wanted a mini cone.

Then we filled them with various flavors of ice cream. This may be my new favorite holiday.

 Sarah chose one of the big taco shells.

 It immediately broke in half but tasted delicious anyway.

 Justin too chose the mega taco shell and filled is up with a quart of ice cream.

He's a pro at any type of taco

I decided that I should probably learn how to Dutch braid so I watched 4 youtube tutorials before I tried it out on Sarah. Not bad for my second try, eh?

Sarah started watching other hair tutorials and chose this one for me to do on her hair. So pretty and so easy. (Sorry I don't have the link to the actual tutorial--Sarah watched it and explained to me how to do it so I didn't actually watch the video myself but it is this lady.)

Jaida and Lexie visited us yesterday. They moved 3 years ago to Hooper but since their grandma lives in Salem, sometimes we are able to work it out to get the kids together.

Jaida was Sarah's first friend and Lexie and Henry played together when they were the age James is now. We miss having them next door.

They made stuff with Perler beads forever, ate lunch outside and then more Perler beads until their nana came to pick them up. I hope we see them again soon.

I'm super excited for tomorrow's Pioneer Day celebration in Mapleton. I've been hearing my kids talk about how awesome the pancake breakfast and parade are and that they can't wait for the fireworks. I love when my kids grow to love what I love. Parenting win.

July 4th and so forth

For the fourth, we had a bbq at our house with Justin's parents and brother and his wife. It was hot and we ate well.

I made Sarah a new flag shirt so Erica got the smaller one. 

Nothing better than jumping on the trampoline with Uncle Nate.

Around 9 we moved the party out front and broke glow sticks and lit sparklers.

 I tried to buy diving sticks for swimming at Walmart on July 3rd but they've cleared out most of their summers stuff and set up school supplies (on July 3!) So I bought big glow sticks that we could use this night and dive for later.

 Erica is like me and is afraid of sparklers.

 Like wants nothing to do with them.

 But Nana helped her out and now she's all about them and wants Justin to buy more for the 24th.

This is Russian Cream (recipe linked here) that I made for dessert. But for that night it was Independence Cream with red and blue berries

 We could see fireworks going off in all directions and sounded amazing echoing off the mountains and hillside.

Once it seemed that those closest to us ran out of fireworks, I took James inside and put him to bed then we tucked in the rest of the kids. Good times.

Thursday morning we packed up and drove to Vernal. Sometimes you just have to go somewhere you've never been that isn't terribly far and where the hotel has a pool and free breakfast.

 I honestly can't remember why I took these pictures but I totally feel like my mom when I take pictures from inside the car.

 We stopped at a pizza place in Roosevelt for lunch and they had these ride on toys. Justin was nice and turned them on for each of them.

 All the kids cared about was swimming. Seriously. It was the first thing we did after we checked into the room.

After swimming and James's short and dramatic nap, we ate at a Mexican place in town and then went to Ashley Valley Community park. This park is very big and had lots of play structures for the kids to play on. 

 Erica got hurt and James is so quick to give her hugs when she's sad.

 Friday morning after our free breakfast of eggs, sausage, and the kids wasting cereal and yogurt, we drove to Dinosaur National Monument. I love state and national parks and stuff so this was what I most wanted to do.

After we got to the visitor's center, we hopped on a shuttle that took us up and around to the quarry wall. This is where they've enclosed a large quarry wall that is just full of dinosaur bones.

 It's pretty impressive and a little creepy.

 James just got grumpier from this point on.

 Hey there I am. Yay for traveling!

 Henry climbed up to the "don't climb on them" sign.

 Some of the wall is gated off but there are sections that you can get right up to and feel.

Aaaand James liked the rocks the best.

This cute little park ranger started the Jr. Ranger class so Erica and Sarah listened to her for awhile. At this point James was unbearably whiny and only wanted to eat crackers so I took him outside since there's no food allowed in the quarry.

 Once Sarah was done, we headed back to the car. I can't wait to see this picture again in 10 years. Classic.

 From there we took a drive further into the monument. There's a self-guided driving tour that takes you to cool petroglyphs, rock formations and such.

 These drawings are supposedly a bazillion years old.

 The kids found a cool cave to hang out in. It was hot.

 Look at these crazy clouds.

 The tour ended at the Josie Morris cabin and that's where we ate lunch. I have so many memories of eating lunch in the woods on a picnic table as a kid.

 James is less ornery if he's drinking juice, fyi.

This is the cabin Josie Morris lived in until like 1935. Dirt floor, no electricity or plumbing. She was one tough cookie.

 It was pretty roomy for one person though.

 Sarah was such a good sport and only asked about swimming 44 times.

 She has a hole in the bottom of her shoe so she had to dump out the dirt now and again.

Then we hiked up the trail to a box canyon and then came back. Whenever we were not in the pool it was "When are we going swimming?" "Can we go back to the hotel now and swim?" James took a good long nap while I took the kids to the pool. I watched them forever then Justin traded me and he watched them forever while I stayed in the room with sleeping James. 

Then when he woke up we went out for Chinese food. We've eaten take out and made lots of Chinese food at home but this was the first time the kids had been to a Chinese restaurant. This is Justin introducing the kids to egg drop soup. Henry LOVED it.

 James thought it was okay. He mostly liked pulling his straw out and flicking water.

 That face. Sheesh.

 Then we loaded up the kids and went for a drive north of Vernal to see what we could see. We saw purple mountains and a couple of reservoirs.

There's a lot about babies that I don't miss. But I will miss Miss MISS James clutching tightly to my fingers and pulling me where he wants to go.

 We walked around a bit at this reservoir and these two are so cute.

 Saturday morning after another breakfast of food wasting and milk spilling, the kids got back into the pool until it was time to check out. James wanted nothing to do with the water at anytime but he was all about these goggles.

He's so weird. What baby freaks out about putting his feet in a pool but doesn't mind tight goggles on his face. Where does he get it?

Seriously? I can't even begin to explain where James gets his goofy goggle wearing from. We may never know.

 Meanwhile Henry and Erica live for cannonballs.

 So glad all those swimming lessons paid off.

 After I had had enough of whiny James at the pool, I took him away for whiny James in the room to get myself ready and he sat at the table watching Shawn the Sheep pretty much the entire time clutching his blanket just like this. For a kid who loves the tub....whatever.

Erica begged and begged for a toothbrush cover that she saw at Walmart and I told her if we went on a trip I'd buy them. So buy them I did for this little trip. This is the only one I saw used the entire time and I'm pretty sure Sarah only brushed her teeth once. Erica's was in her cup holder in the car the entire trip.

 We drove home on US 40. It was closed Thursday on our way there but reopened for our drive home so we went that way to see the fire damage. It was sad and exciting.

 It's obvious why they had to close the road.

And then we took a short-cut past Strawberry reservoir up over the mountains on a dirt road because that is where Justin longs to be. By that time Redvines were the only thing keeping James from going nuts.

Happy Independence Day!