Pioneer Day

I love our heritage. I know just about every religion has their unique holidays, and I love every one of them. In fact, I'll take any excuse for a holiday. So we celebrate "Pioneer Day" with the rest of most "Mormons" on the 24th of July to commemorate the day the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley, which concluded their 1000+ mile exodus westward to escape religious persecution. We honor the sacrafices those early saints made to establish and maintain the religious freedom. Many fought, were beaten, driven, and even martyred because of their unwillingness to part with their sacredly held beliefs.

Our ward (congregation) had a Pioneer Day celebration on Saturday, so of course we attended. I have to praise Melissa for her dedication to our children. She made new pioneer dresses for the older girls (Lillian and Morgan) as they had outgrown their previous dresses. She slaved at the sewing machine for several evenings to allow the girls to have pioneer dresses. Kudos to Melissa! What a mom! All I had to do was bend some wire I got from behind the shed and put new strings in the wagon cover.

Here's a photo of the girls while on the trek:

(just kidding.. it's doctored)

Here's a photo from when we finally got there: