Pioneer Day

This past weekend was pioneer day! Which is only an official holiday in Utah. I've always wanted to celebrate this day right, but have not had the energy or time to do so in past years so usually we have just spent time with family and ate food and lit off fireworks.

But this time I figured it out, last minute, and we did things more authentic. I borrowed my great grandma's butter churn from my grandma! We also made hand dipped candles. Then we churned the cream into butter and I had the girls do that while they watched a pioneer movie (Legacy.) I eventually invited some of the girls over from the neighborhood and they helped churn butter too and then made candles. We all ended up dipping our hands in the wax too. Haha Meanwhile I baked bread from scratch like the hard core pioneer that I am.

Then we had a get together with our dear neighbors. So Buck and I made a cobbler and bread pudding in dutch ovens and I also made bread for the butter. And just to be funny, I wore a pioneer outfit I found online haha! I wanted to surprise everyone but they said that me showing up in a pioneer dress and bonnet was not a surprise. (they know me well.)

We ate good food together, played yard games, the kids jumped and went on the slip in slide, and then our neighbors put up their outdoor movie set up and turned on “Sandlot” and we watched that and the men kept playing yard games. 

And it ended with such a serendipitous, magical moment when someone in the neighborhood set off some aerial fireworks  right behind the movie screen, at the same time there were fireworks going off in the show! AMAZING. 

It's clear from this post that our kids do not have the same kind of hard life that the pioneer children had. 😆  But yet I know that these beautiful moments spent with family and friends, free in our choice of religion, was what they made all those sacrifices for! And for this I will be forever grateful and forever humbled. 💛

June's Birthday Celebrations

June's birthday was great! She's so lucky her birthday is in the summer time.... 

This year she wanted an ocean party theme so I put up floating jelly fish and bubbles and a big blue balloon arch across the room. She was excited when she woke up. We did the traditional coffee cake and opened presents. And then....? It was probably one of the most uneventful days because we had plans for the night and then the next day to celebrate. So she went and played with friends and I whatever it is that I did- mom stuff and cleaning and all of that.

That evening June had three friends come over for her birthday party “late over,” which is the new cool thing to do since most families in my generation don't do sleepovers (guess we all got into too much mischief as kids at slumber parties so now we don't trust our own kids haha.) First they ate pizza and then we did a little craft of filling little glass bottles with different colored sands, small sea shells, and little scrolls of paper that you could write wishes on. Then June opened her presents from her friends. And then it was time for cake, which was of course, wonderfully made by Jade.

After eating cake we all went downstairs where there was a counter-ful of more junk food and each girl got a small bin to fill with the goods. Buck had just installed our new projector and so now we can watch movies down there so June and her friends got to watch the first one. I also gave them glow sticks. So I won the “cool mom” award.

The had a great time and sufficiently trashed the basement.

Tuesday was the other part of her birthday and gift and that was to go to this small aquarium place where there are several animal encounters and you can feed animals. It was our first time going. I let June bring one friend and her mom came too.

It's kind of funny though because everyone was all nervous about everything, even June! She had picked out the encounters that she wanted to do but then once we were there she was all scared. 

The first thing we did was a fish foot pedicure. Sound strange? It is. You plunge your feet into these fish tanks and the “doctor fish” go crazy sucking all over your feet, apparently eating away dear skin? I don't know, but it was kind of horrific, especially when they went between your toes. Shudder* And June wouldn't even try it!

After that we got to go feed and play with a kinkajou. It kind of looks like a monkey but is actually related to raccoons and lives in South America, I think. It was so cute! We fed it fruit and it climbed on my shoulders and hooked its tail around my arm as it tried to dangle down to search my purse. Eventually the other three let it climb on them but they were all scared.

We also got to go play with Bengal cats, feed a giant tortoise, iguana, sharks, fish, and view other animals and bugs. 

And then for the grand finale, we got to go swim with sting rays and sharks!

And by “swim” I mean June and Quinn screamed and clung to Rachel and me the whole time so we couldn't hardly move. Haha

So we got into our swimsuits and a wet suit they provided and the marine specialist came in with us. We got snorkels too to use, but again, we didn't really get to since the girls were so nervous. I did take one cruise around the tank.

The second half of the time we sat on a platform of glass, which below is an area that other guests can go under to feel like they are in the tank, so I'm sure they enjoyed seeing our wet suit rumps smashed against that.

We got to pet the sting rays and sharks and feed them shrimp. I really enjoyed this but it was also very hilarious because the girls were screaming and squirming and losing their minds as the sting rays glided around their legs and curiously sucked on our skin. I really wish I had a video of that. I was dying.

  So there you have it. Another ridiculously spoiled birthday in the books for June! 

Happy Birthday to our crazy June Bug!