Pioneer Day

In Utah, July 24th is the day that we celebrate the Mormon pioneers' arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. It's a state holiday. We do parades, fireworks, and then get up in church and talk about dead frozen babies a whole lot. Also about other things, but you just know there will be a dead baby tossed into the mix whether you wanted one or not.

GH and I drove up to Logan on the night of Friday the 23rd, so we could have some festivities before completing the trek (heh, trek--see what I did there?) up to Bear Lake the next afternoon. And oh, such times we did have.


This is GH's "Why do you hate me?" face. Here's why he was making it:

I dragged him out of bed Saturday morning at the crack of dawn to attend a local Pioneer Day breakfast by calling upon the force of his true love for me. (I would have let him sleep in and gone without him, except when I peeked in and saw that he was awake in bed with his iPod I figured it was on. And then I was relentless.)

We got to the park, stood in line for about 20 minutes, and reached the front just as they ran out of french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and sausage gravy. (Not that I would ever eat a non-Southerner's sausage gravy, but still.) GH ate his single flap jack and spoonful of hash browns in A Betrayed but Forbearing Silence. I did not bother him again until he'd gone back to his parents' house and had some cereal. And a shower. And some time healing his soul by reading Comic-Con updates.



Once he was ready to face the cruel world again, we met up with GH's extended family down the street for the parade. This was a smaller one that mostly consisted of local elected officials, valley royalty, and local businesses. One of the businesses was a pageant company. Its float consisted, I kid you not, of two girls (aged about 7 and 10) in the back of a truck wearing bikinis, pageant sashes, and tiaras shaped like the Pope's hat. I . . . had no words. The neighborhood Primary groups got in on the action too, dressed up like pioneers and either walking or riding the transportation of their choice. GH said that when he was little he used to dress up like a cowboy and ride his bike in the parade too. Since, you know, that's how the little Mormon children crossed the plains and all. With cowboy hats, on scooters, dodging all the fresh graves.

Anyway, it was a great day, and then it was on to Bear Lake for the reunioning!