Pioneer Day

The North Las Vegas Stake has a pretty awesome Pioneer Day tradition. They have a HUGE carnival type celebration each year that includes entertainment (well, you could call it that), fantastic food, games, bake sales, crafts, face painting, slip 'n sliding, a myriad of blow up slidey and bouncy things for kids, balloons, fun, and more food... oh, and most importantly: a phenomenal fireworks display at the end. Other than dealing with the sweltering heat, we have had a blast going these last two Summers... and so have a lot of other people. Something like 8,000 people attended this year!

Here we are just arriving and staking out our seats. I thought I deserved special treatment being 8 1/2 months pregnant and all, but looking around I realized that there were hundreds (well, that's how it seemed to me) of other pregnant women too. Oh well. Fortunately, I was feeling pretty good that day. (But seriously, how can you not feel good with carne asada tacos and watermelon coming out your ears?)

Both of our moms came, too, which was a lot of fun... and a huge help with Weston! Here he is with each of his grandmas. Aunt Shae-Leigh also came along with a friend of hersAnd while Weston is always thrilled to see Aunt Shae-Leigh, who is looking very lovely in this photo...his eye was mostly on the object of his affection, Hope OlsenIsn't she a doll? They sure have fun together. Yes, you may even call it a crush. Sometimes when we're having a hard time getting Weston to do something (like brush his teeth, put on his Sunday pants, whatever) Jason will say, "Hope likes boys who wear nice clothes to church." Without fail, once he hears her name, he'll do what we want. Isn't that funny?

Waiting for the fireworks to begin...

All in all, we had a wonderful time. We were glad that we ran into our friends, the Olsens. The kids all had a blast playing with those glow in the dark thingies and dancing to the music (aka "entertainment"). Here I am near the end of the evening, one tired lady! I was remembering how sprightly we all were last year at Pioneer Days, and decided to look up those pictures. Wow, how Weston has grown! He had only been walking for about a month, and once he started, he didn't want to stop - that is why we had to keep him on a monkey leash the whole time. Weston still had a little bit of that baby look last Summer... and from these pictures of Uncle Trevor and Aunt Shae-Leigh, it looks like he isn't the only one who did some growing up in the past year! :)

How I love traditions! It will be fun to see our little family in another year... this time with a 3 year old Weston and a baby girl in tow.