24th of July

This post is for anyone who has never had the opportunity to celebrate the 24th of July Sanford/Manassa style. First of all maybe I should take a minute to explain what the 24th of July is for any non-LDS readers. On the 24th of July, 1847 Brigham Young, the second president of the LDS Church, arrived in Utah's Great Salt Lake Valley with fellow members of the church after a 1,300 mi trec from Nauvoo, IL. Eventually over 70,000 pioneers made the trec to Salt Lake seeking religious freedom. Today we honor these brave pioneers with the 24th of July or Pioneer Day celebration. I don't know how it is done in Utah, but in my 31 years of life I have seldom missed a Pioneer Day celebration in Sanford. Sanford is a small town in the San Luis Valley, in Southern Colorado. It and some of the other small towns around it were settled by early mormon pioneers. So, anyway, there is a little back ground for you.
I remember, as a kid, looking forward to the 24th all year long. Family reunions were planned around the celebration. I lived by most of my aunts and uncles and cousins, and saw them a lot, but at the 24th our super cute 2nd cousins would be there. I had many a crush on those cute 2nd cousins. And in a town of 800 people, one convenient store and no real entertainment, all of sudden there was so much to do. It all starts on Tuesday and Wednesday night with the Sanford Pageant. I was in a few of those pageants. I remember playing a pioneer girl and one year I played a Neiphite, or was it a Laminite, that was killed in a battle. Then on Thursday morning at 6:00 am we get started with the pan cake breakfast. After that go home and get ready for the parade at 10:00. The parade goes down main street in Sanford. It consists of lots of horses and kids on bikes and some on four wheelers, and a few floats made mostly by different organizations in the church on a budget of $100 per float. There is usually always someone pulling a hand card in true pioneer fashion. Once the parade goes by it turns around and comes back. That way everyone is able to see both sides of the floats. After the parade there is usually some kind of program at the church. This year there was also a quilt show at the high school. Then the BBQ for lunch at 12:00. At 2:00, races for every age group. This year they even introduced a baby crawl. The races include an egg toss. That was always my favorite. Then to finish off the day there was a family dance at the church. Some how after all of that we were never too tired to go to Manassa on Friday and Saturday for more celebration. Another parade, only bigger and better (it also went both ways), a carnival, rodeo, live music, more dances, lots of hamburgers, then fireworks. That week was the high light of the summer.
As an adult it's not quite the same. Actually, it's a lot of work, but I still love it. And my kids love it. It's so fun to see them enjoying the exact same things that I loved as a kid. There is even a girl there that has a crush on Nate. Now he's the super cute out-of-town boy. It's killing me!

If you would like follow the early pioneers on their trec go Here.

24th of July Collagefest (cont.)

Family!

These pics are of the Sanford Musuem and of the Quilt Show. The black dress belonged to my grandma Voris. Notice the basket ball uniform for the Sanford Giants. Thank heaven for progress.

24th of July Collagefest

Some of the Cusins.

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's

At the parade. We went to three of them.

Some of the floats in the Manassa Parade.

Camping at Devil's Head

Devils Head is a great place to camp. The kids had such a good time. They could have spent the whole time just climbing on the rocks at our camp site. It was surrounded by what we call "climbin' rocks"

s'mores

just playing around.

the hike up Devil's Head.

It took up about 2 1/2 hours round trip. McKay walk the whole way up and most of the way down. He was awesome. About half way up the kids gave me a back massage (bottom middle picture). Funny story- Nate was worried that we would not be able to go all the way to the tower because we had water bottles with us. Notice the sign "No water at tower".

We made it!!!

Beautiful 360 degree views form the top. Check out the ladybug invasion.

due to a hole in the air matress and a very cold rough night the second night of our camping trip was spent in our back yard.

Fear

Sam has school on Monday nights, so last night the kids and I went through a drive through for dinner then went to the park. We ended up staying at the park pretty late. The kids where running around burning off energy and I called a friend. While I was on the phone I noticed Bryce running behind the tennis courts with his friend. He knows that he is not supposed to leave the play area with out permission and I usually don't give permission because the little kids always want to follow the big kids. Any way, there he went behind the tennis courts. I yelled for him but he didn't hear me so I just let it go and decided that I would just talk to him when he got back. I kept talking on the phone and it started to get dark and I realized that Bryce had not come back. I got off the phone and started gathering all of the kids. Still no Bryce. The main road going though our sub-division is right in front of the park. there is a tunnel that goes under the road. Nate and Abby told me that the last time they saw Bryce he was going into the tunnel with his friend. By this time it was totally dark and I was starting to worry. I put all of the kids in the car so that I wouldn't loss any more of them, and I started looking for Bryce. I was walking around the park yelling his name, expecting him to show up at any moment. There's no way that he would leave the park, right? Wrong! I couldn't find him anywhere. There were some older boys at the park that had been playing with my kids earlier and they got on there bikes and started helping in the search. Sam was home by this point so I called him and he came to look. I started stopping strangers walking through the park and asking them to help look. By this time I'm in full panic mode. I'm imagining the psycho hiding in the tunnel just waiting for some stray child to come along. I was freaking out. I almost dialed 911 a dozen times then I would think I should keep looking for just one more minute. Then I saw him running down the side walk with his friend. I couldn't even be happy that he was okay because all I could think about was how I was going to kill him.
Apparently his friend asked him to go to his house to meet his parents, a house that I've never been to and parents that I've never met. He knew that I would say no, so of course the only option he had was to just go without telling me. He crossed a busy road in the dark to go to a friend's house and see people that I know nothing about. Really, I could have strangled him right there in the park. He very well may be grounded for the rest of his life. Not only as a punishment for what he did but also because I might not ever let any of my kids out of my sight again. Lossing one of your kids, even if it is only for 20 minutes, is the most horrible feeling ever.

Signature

I just figured out how to add a signature to my blog. Go HERE to make your own.

they are catching on

When Sam called this morning I let McKay answer the phone and talk for a minute. During thier conversation McKay told Sam, "Bring home tacos". He's 2 1/2 and he said, bring home tacos. I love it! By the way Sam, seriously, bring home tacos.

Annoyances

#1

Sam took Nate back to Littleton Hospital last night to have his stitches removed. Littleton Hospital is over 30 min. away so I was glad that Sam took him and I didn't have to go with all 5 kids. We haven't been swimming all week because of his stitches and and we planned to go today since he was getting his stitches out yesterday. The Doctor who did the stitches did a great job with the stitching but I guess as an extra precautionary measure she put glue over all of the stitching. Lots and lots of glue. So much glue that when he went to have the stitches removed the doctor could not gain access to the stitches to remove them. They put some cream over the glue that was supposed to loosen it and said come back tomorrow. Are you kidding me? Another trip to Littleton, and this time I would have to go with all of the kids. That didn't sound like very much fun to me so I took the stitches out my self. There is sill tons of glue stuck in Nate's hair that I am going to have to cut out but at least we can go swimming today, right? Wrong! Gracie has an ear infection.

#2

Last night Gracie wasn't feeling well and ended up in my bed. I couldn't get comfortable and I didn't want to bother her so I ended up on the couch. At about 7:30 McKay started yelling for me from his crib. "Mommy, get me out". He totally can get out on his own, but he usually doesn't, which most of the time is a good thing, but this morning I would have loved for him to get out on his own. Any way, this how the conversation went.

McKay "Mommy, get me out"

Me "You can get out by your self"

McKay "No, you do it"

Me "Let Abby help you"

McKay "No, you do it"

Me "McKay, mommy is tired please get out by your self"

McKay "No, you get me out!"

Me "fine"

So I drag my tired self off of the couch and up the stairs I go, into his room and with out stretched arms I say to him "come here baby". To which he responds " No, I do it myself"

Ladybug

Is it just me or are there tons of ladybugs this summer. I've never seen so many. Maybe it's because of all of the rain. I don't know, but it's cool. Ladybugs are cool. You probably can't tell from the pictures but this particular ladybug is crazy big the biggest one I've ever seen!

Recipe #1 Avacado Salsa

I have never posted a recipe because I don't like to cook or make new recipes. Not that I never do it, it's just not really my thing, but today I came across this recipe and I was really hungry and it looked really good so I made it and it is. Give it a try.

2 large ripe tomatoes
1/2 cucumber (Is this throwing you off? It threw me off too but actually REALLY makes the dish.)
1 green onion
1 avocado
salt
fresh ground pepper
2 cups of cottage cheese
Chop up all of the veggies, slice the onion, and mix together with the salt and pepper. Serve over cottage cheese and eat with tortilla chips.

I also added a little bit of cilantro, salt and the juice from 1/2 of a small lime.

It's Awesome!!!

I'm making Sweet Pork Tacos/Cilantro Lime Slaw tonight. I'll tell you what I think tomorrow.

These Recipes were found on http://www.makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/

"Car"versations #4

Abby- "China is in Asia"
Bryce- "No it's not"
Abby- "Yes it is"
Bryce- "No it's not"
Abby- "Yes it is"
Bryce- "No it's not"
Abby- "Yes it is"
Bryce- "No it's not"
Abby- "Yes it is"
Bryce- "Mom is China in Asia?"
Mom- "Yes"
Abby- "I told you so"
Bryce-"Soooo"

Later today...

Abby makes a comment about going to Six Flags.
Bryce- "It's not Six Flags, it's Eliches"
Abby- "I can call it Six Flags"
Bryce- But it's not Six Flags, it's Eliches"
Abby- "I can call it Six Flags"
Bryce- But it's not Six Flags, it's Eliches"
Abby- "I can call it Six Flags"
Bryce- But it's not Six Flags, it's Eliches"
Mom-"NO MORE TALKING!!!"

This is just two of many wonderful and exiting conversations that were had today in the car. It was a super fun day!!!!!

Stitches

Last night after scouts Nate was playing in the gym with some friends and fell. He landed head first into the bottom of one of those rolling chalk boards and cut his head open. He said that it didn't hurt so he just sat up and then his friends noticed the blood, and then he noticed the blood. What's up with head wounds and all of the blood!? Any way, one of the leaders saw what happened and run over and started putting pressure on the cut. Lots of paper towels were summoned and eventually they got the bleeding to stop. I was in the lobby of the church when it happened, they came and got me and after looking at the cut we all agreed it needed stitches. I called Sam and we went to the ER. We got there by 9:00 and got out a little after midnight. Of those 3 hours at the ER we were actually being taken care of about 15 min. It was a long night.

Nate is glad that this time the stitches are more visible that the last time he got stitches. He asked the Doctor lots of great questions and made sure she knew exactly what he was feeling with each stitch, ie. "I feel that one pulling a little", " That one kind of hurt" and so on.

The doctor did a different kind of stitch where it is all on the inside so you don't see the "tracks".

On each end of the cut is a string that after she was done with the stitching she pulled to tighten everything up, then sealed it all with glue. It was kind of cool.

Nate is so sweat too. Yesterday we spent 7 hours at Pirates Cove water park so we were exhausted. All I could talk about was how I planned to be in bed by 8:30. At the ER Sam said to me so much for going to bed early tonight. Then Nate said, "I'm really sorry I ruined your plans tonight mom". He is such a good kid!

Thanks to everyone who helped out last night. There were so many people taking care of things that I didn't even feel the need to freak out. Our ward and our friends are awesome!