Big Family Vacation part 2 - Pioneer Day

July 24 is a state holiday in Utah, celebrating the day Brigham Young and company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and he declared, “This is the place.” Each city has a major celebration planned. We joined the Provo festival two blocks away from our AirBNB from 10-2 and then did fireworks in Orem after dinner. Joy visited her cousin Heather while the rest of us did the Provo festival.

The pioneer village and museum (always there) were both open and populated by folks in period clothing showing off skills like leatherworking and blacksmithing. The kids enjoyed a pioneer version of catch played with sticks and hoops. I was impressed by the hair art (pictued) – people would weave the hair of their departed loved ones to remember them by. At the museum, I noticed (on my mother’s behalf) that there wasn’t any bobbin lace, but lots of crochet. Apparently that was the skill the pioneer women took with them to make pretty things. I laughed about the collection of musical organs they had on display. One told the story of how they acquired it and the previous owners were happy that more people would get a chance to play on it. That story was next to a prominent sign: “DO NOT TOUCH OR PLAY.” More than half a dozen century-old organs and I’m not allowed to touch any. So sad!

Nia: I made a dolly out of corn husks! There were very few places to sit at the museum – one spot next to the bathrooms.

Hy: And the sign said you could only sit in the chair to look at the display case next to it. At every pioneer thing I’ve been to they’ve had that ring toss game and I enjoy it because I like sports.

Nia: I’m terrified to do that again because when I launched the hoop aiming at JT, it flew too far and went through the fence and broke! So I am afraid of doing that again in case I break the toy and ruin it for everyone else. I liked milking the bear.

<We all stare at her. She reminds us.>

One of the toys was a toy, wooden bear that had two ropes through each paw. By pulling on the ropes really fast, alternating back and forth, the bear would “climb” the ropes to the top. This was there to teach the children how to milk a cow.

Nia: So it was milking the bear! You milk the bear up the wall.

Hy: If I tried to milk a bear, I would sure milk it up a wall.

 

They had many games. Despite Hyrum’s great strength, the heavier person won each stick pulling contest.

Nia: Dad pulled Hyrum to the side to win, but I actually went up, so I lost with style!

We did a root beer chug as a family plus one guy we didn’t know. He won. I came a close second and the kids came close to exploding before they finished. That guy incidentally won the citywide root beer chug at noon.

Hy: So you feel less bad?

Yes. Only the winners of the “family” chug got to participate in the full contest. It reassures me that I could have placed better in the rootbeer chug than I did the pie eating contest. I mentioned to some of the other guys in the pie eating contest that if you looked to your side and see someone Way ahead of you, the winning strategy is to slow way down and just enjoy your slice of pie. Turns out the guy next to me was the clear winner, so I slowed down pretty early on and enjoyed it slowly, shared some with the kids. One remarked that they could see when I gave up. There were also food trucks so we could have something resembling real food too.

Hy: JT and I raced ducks. They have two paths of water and we both get a small rubber duckie and a straw that we turn so that when we blow down, the air shoots out forwards. We raced to see who could get our duck to the end fastest. Most of the booths gave prizes for participation. My real success in the festival was in the ring toss. It was very difficult because the bottles in the center were close together, and I got on in the back. They only gave prizes to actual winners at that one, so that felt like my real prizes.

A bunch of crafts were on display. I took pictures of this crochet dragon. We assembled a bucket, which is a lot like a 3D puzzle where you have to put the puzzle pieces in a particular order. Nia and I added to the crochet chain everyone did. There were wood carvers. Joy got a couple miniature pencil sharpeners (a grandfather clock and a grain mill).

Nia: I bought a tiny crochet octopus! There were some really cool earrings!

Joy: It was really cool to be at the pioneer park on Pioneer Day. Since we don’t usually get to be in Utah for the holiday.

The Orem fireworks were Very well attended. We couldn’t find a place to park, so paused our car in the middle of the parking lot and everyone but me got out to watch. An older couple had set out lawn chairs behind their parked car, so we were with them, knowing we weren’t blocking them from getting out. I tried playing some music to go along with the fireworks, but the kids kept asking me to turn it off. ☹  It was a very nice display.

We set off sparklers, poppers, and some flower-works at home afterwards and had a late sleep.

JT: It was really sad when the last flowerwork was a dud.

Nia: It was!

Joy: The fireworks were really neat. We haven’t seen a display like that in a long time.

Nia: The 24^th of July is like a million times better than Stephenville’s celebration of the 4^th!

Hy: I noticed the Y on the mountain was lit up.