Pioneer Day

As usual we went to Escalante for the 24th of July Celebrations. The 24th of July is the day we celebrate the Mormon Pioneers settling UT.  It's a BIG deal here, in fact I think most small towns do more for the 24th than they do for the 4th!
Anyway, we got up early Saturday morning and drove to Escalante. We were in a hurry, so Chris was going a little faster than normal around all of the twist and turns. The kids spent the last 45 minutes of the ride pretending they were on a roller coaster. They laughed HYSTERICALLY the whole time. They had Chris and I in tears laughing at them laughing!!! I swear there's no better sound than that deep belly roll laugh coming from a kid.

We made it just in time to watch the parade. I swear my kids get more candy at this parade than they do at Halloween. And yes, Morgan got a stupid frisbee from the forest service!!! (Thank Goodness! HA!)

We got a kick out of Preston! Preston CAN! NOT! STAND! fruity candy. He won't even eat a sucker!  But he LOOOOOOOOVES a Tootsie Roll!! So, as they're throwing out all of the candy at the parade, Preston stood there and looked at the ground searching for a tootsie roll. That's all he'd pick up. Once he saw one though, he made a mad dash for it and heaven help anyone that got in his way! At one point a guy walked up to him and tried to give him a piece of candy and Preston just shook his head and walked away.

After the parade, we made our way to Grandma Almeda's (Chris' Grandma) house for lunch and play time. The kids LOVE Grandma Almeda's house because they get to basically do whatever they want to do! She's so patient with them and let's them "help" her cook, finds old toys (most of which were Chris' or Brit's) for them to play with, gives them old jars to hunt for bugs with... they name it-she's game!

Every year they do a "carnival' in the center of town. It's definitely not anything elaborate, just a few booths and some inflatables for the kids, but my kids have a BLAST! For the last 2 years, the girls have had a snow cone booth. Those girls worked their little tails off this year. They made $160 in 2 hours! So they've made a total of $225 this year to help buy their school clothes.(Please notice the homemade signs. I especially LOVE the one where the $1 is BACKWARDS! HA!)

Each girl took a little break to go run in the races. Boy were they glad they did. Morgan took 1st place and Shelby took 2nd in their age divisions. I laughed SO HARD when Morgan said, "It's probably cause Escalante is so small and the kids here aren't used to running." Yea, it's not quite that small! Preston spent the whole afternoon with Aunt Brittany playing on the water slide and inflatables.

After the carnival we went to the Rodeo. The girls had a ball! Preston... not so much.

Chris and I took him home and left the girls with Brittany and Jon.  She got to be the cool Aunt by letting the girls ride the Mechanical Bull. Here's Shelby's 1st try. I'll post the other videos when she sends them to me.



The girls got to stay up for fireworks before crashing in Grandma Almeda's living room!!!!

Sunday Morning, we hung out at Chris' dad's house for a while and the kids PLAYED AND PLAYED AND PLAYED... all was well until we realized that Preston's lizard had died. Suddenly the world came to a screeching halt and we had one sad, heartbroken little boy.  He insisted that we bring him home with us and give him a "proper burial. We now have our 1st pet buried in our backyard. 

Chris had the day off today, so he took the kids to the movies and then spent the afternoon with the girls at the shooting range. The girls LOVE the shooting range!! Preston and I went on a mission to heal the whole in his little heart (HA!) Let me introduce you to "Knuckles"  (Please ignore the orphan child's dirty face) All is right in "The World According to Preston" now!

It was a busy weekend, but the kids had fun. Growing up, I never appreciated the little celebrations in Williston. I always thought they were "podunk". The older I get, the more I realize that things don't have to be big and extravagant to be fun. I like the "small town" stuff more and more every year!