Pioneer Day Celebration

Every year, our stake puts on a huge Pioneer Day celebration at the Nisqually property owned by the church. It involves camping (which we don't do because I'm more of a sleep-in-a-bed-with-electricity kind of girl, rather than a sleep-in-a-tent-on-the-ground-with-bugs-and-dirt kind of girl), baseball games against the different wards, lots of food and blow up bouncy houses. We only went down for the Saturday events, which was just enough for me. I don't particularly love all the dirt and lack of air conditioning so when it was time to go, I was okay with that :)

My kids went straight for the snow cones and popcorn that were being handed out prior to the big BBQ dinner put on by the Stake presidency. Afterwards we let them jump on slide on the bouncy houses, which were unfortunately put out in a different field this year in direct sunlight. My kids were really hot and poor Jack was sunburned and sweaty almost instantly. The kids had fun running around the different paths with their cousins too. Poor Madelynn, though, was not feeling well and kept saying her belly hurt, so she stayed with me most of the time. She ended up falling asleep on me so I put her in her stroller and she slept for a while, which, if you know Madelynn, is unheard of so she must have been feeling sick.

My mom and dad were partially in charge of dinner and cooked up LOTS of hamburgers and hot dogs. We had watermelon and chips and salads too. It was really yummy and every year I'm amazed at the time and work it takes the Stake presidency to put on such a huge dinner free of charge to the entire stake who comes down there.

After dinner we let the kids swing on the big bucket swings. Did I see on? I meant IN. These buckets have holes cut out on the sides or on top so kids can fit inside and swing around or get twisted up so they get all dizzy. My kids always love these. I even tried them last year and will never try them again. They made me so dizzy and sick! Can't wait for next year when we get to go back, though. Despite the heat and dirt and bugs, we always have fun. Hopefully none of my kids are sick though next time!

Kelli got stuck cutting tomatoes, which is funny because she doesn't like tomatoes. But she did a stellar job cutting them.

I think Jack ate his body weight in snow cones.

Way too much fun. And way too much sun. Haha, I rhymed.

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Do you see how sweaty he is? And red? Not just his hair, but his face? I slathered him in sunscreen after this.

Madelynn was a little more picky about her snow cones. I had to scrape off most of the ice so she could just drink the syrup at the bottom. This could explain her belly hurting her. But it doesn't, she had been complaining for a while, I just thought she was fibbing. She does that a lot.

Don't let this fool you. She's just happy she's swinging in a super dirty swing. See why I don't like camping? Dirty!

See how fast she's going? And the blur of the kid in the background that is about to be whacked by a spinning bucket on a rope?

I'm surprised my kids didn't throw up after this.

Frenemies. Best friends who fought like siblings. Don't worry, Celeste's kids were there too but she had inlaws in town so we didn't see much of them that day.

We positioned her stroller away from others so she could sleep with some quiet. People passing by her stroller, though, looked at her like she had been abandoned. I swear, we watched her the entire time!

Yummy dinner! I think Jack also ate his body weight in watermelon.

Love their facial expressions here. One last swing before we had to go home.