24th of July - Pioneer Day!!

Friday the twenty fourth of July was a fun day! We got up early and went to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days parade. The night before we went downtown to set up our chairs at the park to make sure we had a decent spot. The kids thought the parade was really fun and Ashley liked trying to get the candy that the floats were throwing. After the parade ended, we packed up the chairs and cooler and loaded it in the van and decided to walk around the park seeing what there was to do!

Ashley wanted her face painted but we didn't see a face painting booth so we had promised the kids a hawaiin shaved ice so that is where we headed. On the way we passed all the food booths and the very end one was selling fired twinkies, fried snickers and fried oreos. The kids wanted to try a fried twinkie so we ordered 2 of them for all of us to share. The twinkies were good but not anything that I would ever order again. We all got our shaved ices and ate them, then we headed back to the van to go home. On our way back I saw someone who looked like Candice, (Bryce's wife). I asked her name and found out it was Candice and so I introduced myself, Jeff and the rest of the family. Candice showed me little Jaxon who was sleeping sooundly in the stroller, and he is so darling, and she told me that Bryce had just left to go back to work. I was a little disappointed, I was really hoping he was there when I had first seen Candice. I had hoped I would get to meet him. We went home and I made sweet meatballs for dinner and we decided to go for a ride up Spanish Fork canyon. Sad to say but this is the first time we have been up the canyon in 2 years.

The rest of the afternoon we rode up to the Thistle dam and showed the kids the town of what used to be Thistle and told them the story of what happened years ago. After Thistle dam we headed up Diamond Fork. the ride was beautiful, and I was so tired, I had not been feeling well the last couple of days, and I soon fell asleep. I woke up halfway up the canyon and in one section of the river we found this area that had sulfur smells and springs coming out of the ground on the side of the mountain, the ground was covered with white and green mineral deposits. I was awed, and thought that it was so neat, I wanted to get over to that side of the creek and see for myself. We went up to the top of the canyon and turned around and on our way back we got out and walked over to the stinky springs we had seen on the way up.
We hiked a little ways in and found the springs and I of course found the black mud while I was trying to get up to the higher part of the springs. On the way back to the van to go back home the kids found a brown lizard sunning itself on a rock by the creek. Jeff drove back home while the kids and I looked at the beautiful canyon. We ran up to check out the Res and the new campgrounds above the res and then headed for home. We got back home and I quickly made sweet and sour meatballs for dinner. We finished dinner and gathered up everything for the evening festivities to begin.

After the gathering of the chairs, blankets, treats, cooler, jackets and bugspray we left for the old ballpark so we could save spots for all of us to watch the fireworks. The night was cool and breezy, but nice, and just right even in spite of a light 10 minute sprinkling of rain. Nate & Shannon threw a tailgate party and brought the fixings for everyone to have macho nachos. Ashley, Zach and Derek along with Shannon & Nate's kids and Brian and Maryann's kids played on the field and at the little playground next to the baseball field and had a blast with each other. Mom showed up later with Tiffany and Josce and Sienna and the fireworks began. Fireworks were fun, exciting and pretty but I had had my fill of fun for one day and with a splitting headache I was more than ready for the day to be over. We had had a day filled with fun and time spent together as a family but there is a time for all good things to end.