Pioneer Day 2013

Cedar City has a parade to celebrate Utah's Pioneer Day. It's a state holiday.  We went to the parade.  I think I liked Kanarraville's on the 4th better. It was short and sweet.  My seat was tired of sitting on the concrete curb for close to an hour today. :-)  Plus, they hardly threw out any candy in Cedar City.  I will have to say that we had nice seats that were mostly in the shade, so that was nice.  I don't know.  A parade just doesn't seem to be much of a parade without marching bands and stuff.  There were some groups of marchers playing instruments, true.  Some were even BAND instruments.  One of the town wards now has a dutch oven percussion band.  They ride on a trailer.  Can you imagine carrying around a dutch oven while tapping/pounding on it with a metal spatula or hammer??!!  Yowza.  We have a traditional Kazoo marching band every year in this parade, too.  I liked it when our ward had the "Drill Team" and we've seen some great lawn chair marchers, too.

J was grinning ear to ear. Sorry for chopping off the big sister's head!

I didn't bring my camera to the parade, but did manage to capture a smile on my phone's camera.

Speaking of Dutch Ovens, yesterday July 23 was Mike's Mom's 88th birthday.  Mike cooked all day long (with a little bit of help) and we served up a nice big feast for her and some family in the evening.  It was yummy.  He made LOTS.  So we ate it again today for lunch after the parade. And we'll be eating it the rest of the week, too.  Even after giving away some to Mike's Mom and to Gail's family.

It is only Wednesday, but because of having days off, it feels so much like Saturday!!

I took off Tuesday this week, too.  And Thursday as well--just because I could.  On Tuesday, I tended Gail's two kids because she was in Las Vegas for a Craft and Hobby Association convention/show.  I had the kids sleep over on Monday night, but I was so tired . . .I was just glad they went to bed willingly about the same time I did. ha.  We really didn't do anything too terribly fun together, but we did help Mike out a lot on Tuesday as he did all his cooking. And C and I did some work at Berenice's on her birthday--defrost and clean out the big deep freeze and swept up a small portion of

the carport.

And we've had rain!  Afternoon thundershowers.  Today's even included some hail, but thankfully it did no damage to our plants in the garden.  We may just get something to harvest from it yet!  Yesterday I picked two bell peppers and a couple of yellow banana peppers.  Not much, but it's a start.  We will be having LOTS of cabbage, so if you want some, be sure to let me know (if you are close enough to share with, that is).


I drove through the afternoon/evening thundershowers taking Eric to catch his shuttle to the Las Vegas Airport.  (Gail was actually driving home FROM Las Vegas during that same time and saw the same thing we did!)  We saw some absolutely phenomenal lightening in the skies over the mountains on the way down there. Wow, it was really something.  We tried to take a picture, but had too little time and very little patience--because you KNOW the best big bolt always comes right after you put your camera down and say, "Oh, I guess it's over now."  ZAP! And it did.  But the clouds and rain and lightening were marvelous to behold to be sure.  It wasn't quite so marvelous driving through it on the way back home, however.  I actually pulled off the freeway in Leeds, as it was raining and looking blacker and blacker.  People drive way too fast for the conditions in my humble opinion, so I thought it best to just get out of their way.

There you have it--my boring blog for the holiday un-weekend.  Happy Pioneer Day!