Utah celebrates the 24th of July as Pioneer Day, because that's the date when the Pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley back in 1847. The 24th of July is a huge celebration in Utah. When I was growing up, it was the big summer holiday since it was always the 24th that was celebrated, not the 4th of July. Tremonton has their annual city celebration on the 24th of July, too. I remember as a kid going over to North Park and participating in or volunteering at the booths set up on the 24th. I remember having my charicature drawn once, having my face painted, buying trinkets, and eating food and watching baseball games. When I was a teenager, I would go to the park with friends at night and lay down on blankets to watch the fireworks show. I just loved the 24th of July, and the opportunity to see school friends in the middle of the summer and feel like I was in the middle of the hubbub of activity!
Now that I've lived in Idaho for the past 11 years, the 4th of July has become the big summer holiday we celebrate because Salmon has their city celebration during the 4th of July, too. So I'd almost completely forgotten about what a huge deal the 24th of July is in Utah, and especially so in Tremonton. But since we were in Utah over the 24th this year, my kids got to participate in what I used to do as a youth. On Day 5 of our vacation to Utah, I took them to the Tremonton City Days celebration--and it's the first time I've ever celebrated Pioneer Day with them! They had a great time, and I liked reminiscing about what I used to do on that holiday when I was a kid!
The activities are now held at the much larger Jeanie Stevens Park rather than North Park. I took the boys over in the morning, and they played on all the inflatable toys. Their favorite was the boxing ring. They could use face masks, boxing gloves, and large stuffed bars. Only two kids could be in the ring at a time, and their turn lasted 3 minutes. The boys went in it over and over, pairing up differently each time.
Jonah and Ammon:
Micah and Kanyon:
There was a really friendly boy about Ammon's age that boxed with Ammon several times, and he loved having someone his own age/size to hit!
After an hour of playing on the inflatable toys, we got some snow cones, and walked around looking at the different vendor booths. The boys all brought their spending money, and each of them bought different things. Jonah and Micah loved the {super loud} air horns they bought:
Then we went back to my mom's for lunch, and to cool down inside. I'd gotten sunburned that morning by just walking around for two hours. It was SUPER hot! A few hours after lunch, we went back to the park some more. We looked at the car show, and this was my favorite one there:
Then the boys played on the inflatable toys some more, and they played some water baseball and water slip 'n slide, and they looked at a couple more Vendor booths. Then we went back to my mom's house again for dinner and to cool off. That night, we went back to the park for fireworks. I bought them all glow sticks, and they played racing tag, running around all the people sitting in lawn chairs and on blankets until the fireworks show started. I never took my camera that day, so I just used my cell phone camera, and this photo of them with their glow sticks didn't really turn out. You can't see them, but you can see the tri-colored glow sticks!
The fireworks show lasted 20 minutes, which was twice as long as the annual Salmon fireworks show! I absolutely loved it! There was such a variety of colors and firework formations. My favorite was the red, white, and blue tri-spherical ones. I could never seem to capture them on camera, though. The fireworks were so big and bright, and I oohed and ahhhed at almost all of them! The finale was amazing, too!
The 24th of July was actually on a Sunday this year, so Utah celebrated for 3 days (much like Salmon celebrated the 4th of July for 4 days this year). The Tremonton celebration was on Saturday, individual's fireworks lit the night and bombarded our ears on Sunday, and Monday was the "Days of 47" Celebrations in central Utah.
Day 6 of our vacation was on Sunday the 24th. We went to church with my parents, and listened to speakers talk about pioneers and Utah heritage. Then we spent the afternoon being lazy: playing video games, watching tv, eating, and taking walks. That night, we did sparklers and fountain fireworks in the driveway. My mom and dad participated with us too, and as the next door neighbors were having their hours-long, big & fancy fireworks show, we were doing our little one! It was the first time this summer the boys played with sparklers, and my mom and I kept those sparklers continually going for the kids for over 10 minutes.
It was so fun to watch them playing with fire!!!
Our little fireworks ended around 10:00, and then we went in to bed. But, on Saturday and Sunday night both, it was so hard for the kids to fall asleep, because people in the neighboring vicinity were letting off noisy fireworks until after midnight! Late bedtimes equal cranky kids and an ornery momma! Thankfully, because we were sleeping in the basement, the small windows only let minimal light in, so we slept in late both mornings after!
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