Pioneers

With Pioneer Day being on a Sunday this year it makes for a whole weekend of festivities. Saturday morning we went to the neighborhood breakfast. After eating delicious fruit, eggs, bacon, and pancakes, Emily got on her decorated bike and followed the neighborhood fire truck around the block for a bike parade. When they ended the fire truck pulled out their 'water guns' and completely soaked all the kids for the next 15 minutes. Emily enjoyed the water more than Jacob, but he still went out into the mist a little bit. Jeff kept quoting, "You get to drink out of the fire hose!"

After getting home from the neighborhood party we pulled out my mom's slide and played for a little bit with some neighbors. Jacob's getting to be quite the dare devil on it. But then that's not all that surprising.
After church and dinner on Sunday we headed down to temple square. The kids had fun splashing around in fountains, pointing out the temple, and seeing the new temple display in the South Visitors Center.

Emily & Jeff checking out the model of the SL temple in the Visitors Center.

Emily was excited to see what the temple actually looks like inside.

While there I tried to get a good cute picture of the kids together. They didn't quite cooperate with me, but I still think the kids are cute. Jeff had Monday the 25th off so we headed up to This is the Place. It was really fun and we're glad we went. It was the perfect thing to do for the holiday. The kids loved petting all the different animals and riding on a horse.
Then while Emily played checkers, Jacob built with some blocks.
We toured some houses and the kids enjoyed the swings out back.
The kids tried their hand at stamping leather. Jacob actually did pretty well all by himself. He was so proud!Eating the taffy from the candy cannon they shot down main street and playing with toys in the ZCMI store. They l.o.v.e.d. the stick ponies.
Checking out the Indian Village and the teepee's as well as the playground/ship.
We rode the little train around the pond, went panning for gold (this was a favorite for all - water for Jacob, gold for Emily, and shade for mom & dad), and then Emily tried her hand at some carpentry. After getting some ice cream we ran home and gathered our things and headed to Jenn's house for the evening. We had a yummy BBQ, the kids played out back and went on Gma's water slide, and then we all gathered out front for some fireworks.
It started sprinkling a little bit so Ally grabbed their big umbrella and all the kids (and Matthew) cuddled underneath it with my mom and me. Can you believe that there's 3 adults and 7 kids under it? We also had some really big sparklers for the kids that were pretty fun. When I asked Emily to look at me so I could take a picture she did the pose below. She can be such a ham sometimes.It was a really fun and busy weekend. I can't imagine a better way to spend a holiday than with family.