Jul 27, 2010

Pioneer Day

Saturday

If you have ever lived in Utah, or been anywhere near Utah on July 24th, you'll know that Pioneer Day here in this state is HUGE. It's probably pretty safe to say they celebrate the holiday more than the 4th of July. I had a hard time with that when I first moved here. Pioneer Day.. Independence Day of our nation... to me, there is no comparison. But, it's Utah and what can I do? Nothing, so celebrate Pioneer Day we did.

We started off the holiday with going to the parade. Salt Lake City has a huge parade and it's wonderful! The floats this year were crazy good. Jared wasn't too jazzed about going to the parade, but since he's the most wonderful man alive, he went with me anyway. My favorite parts were the marching bands. I marched in the Arlington 4th of July parade every year in high school, and it was so fun. I do have to say... our marching band kicks any Utah high school marching band's butt. Go Warriors.

One of the very first parade attractions was a car containing President Uchtdorf (spelling? I could look it up but I'm too lazy). It always amazes me that I can be a half a street away from a member of the First Presidency. Heck, I can just go downtown and hang around temple square for awhile if I want to see any member of the twelve. Also unique to Utah is the very large group of missionaries walking in the parade, bringing up the rear. Strange group to have in the parade, I think. I have zero pictures because I forgot to take the camera, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to many more years of parades to come!

That night we headed over to my SIL Alicia's house for a bbq and to sit around the fire pit in her backyard. Once the sun went down it was such a perfect night to be sitting around the fire. We toasted s'mores and had some good conversation. A night containing some of my favorite things to do in the summer: BBQ and sit around a fire. It's so relaxing, and even though you smell like smoke when you get home, it's totally worth it. Again, *sighs*, zero pics.

All in all, a great day even though it's weird to have two very similar holidays right next to eachother in July. But that's Utah for ya'. I'll just pretend to myself that it's a July 4th parade. ;-)

1 comment:

Amy J said...

Pioneer Day is also my mil's birthday, so we really celebrated that more. But I do think it would be fun to see a parade...