Pioneer Days

One of the little things I miss about Utah is celebrating Pioneer Days. (24th of July) Mostly because that's just a second day to do fireworks. Living in Arizona fireworks are illegal, so I miss getting together with your neighbors and watching all the fountains and flowers and tanks in the front yards. If you're really cool, someone will make a trip out to Wyoming to get the "good" fireworks. The ones they sell in Utah are lamer than the Wyoming ones, but still better than nothing at all in Arizona. One year we were rebels and smuggled sparklers into Arizona.

Pioneer Days is big here in Utah, obviously celebrating when the pioneers arrived here. People like to celebrate it with parades (along with blowing stuff up). When I was little I remember going to a "big parade" in downtown Salt Lake, but that was always crowded and you had to practically sleep on the sidewalk to get a "good spot" and we were never really "parade people". In truth, we've heard rumors of the Gilbert Days Parade, (I think it's in November) but in 9 years have never managed to make it there.

My parent's ward (the one I grew up in) had a kid's parade in the neighborhood the Saturday before the 24th. Fortunately we brought the kid's scooters so they could play around outside, and we decorated those and headed on down to the church. Nick hung back and walked stayed by Christopher's side, so he was a little late and they ran out, but Zach and Madison each scored bike helmets. (Christopher was already wearing his favorite hat) I don't know who donated them, but I thought that was pretty cool of them to do that.

We spent the next week in Vernal, Utah (more on that later) and they had a town parade there on the 24th of July. My friend Mindy, whom we were staying with, even made cute little bee costumes for one of the floats. Two of her kids got to ride on the float. (Their float was by far the best.) The kids thought it was fun, Christopher behaved on his "leash" we bought him, people threw candy to the spectators, etc. It's clear that it's been awhile since I've seen a Pioneer Days Parade because all the floats from all the different wards in Vernal through me off (every other float had a sign declaring which ward they were from- Vernal 8th ward, Vernal 27th ward... you get the picture) "Are there a lot of Mormons here in Vernal?" I asked. She replied no, they had one of the smallest populations of church members in the state. My guess is that the congregations from other churches didn't care to be represented in a parade celebrating the arrival of the Mormon Pioneers.-duh. (Do you ever feel like your IQ is shrinking?)

I enjoyed the variety of entries- the dance company on unicycles, the parade of tractors, the demolition derby cars, and of course the giant oil tanker.

We spent that evening watching Mindy's relatives blow up illegal Wyoming fireworks in their backyard. It was awesome.