Pioneer Dazed

We have definitely gotten into our inner pioneer this summer, but this was the week everyone celebrated Pioneer Days, and we felt it.  So its perfect to see these old pioneers chatting at the lodge at Mosida... These are Elders Smith, Crump and Perkins.

I've been trying to capture the fine look of a deer fly, and I finally get one in focus, and he's missing part of his wing ... but then again, aren't we all broken to some extent?

Our directors were thrilled to get to help us with our group of trekkers.  Just three hand carts, but their grandson was one of the youth involved.

Here are the Crumps and Sister Smith as we await the trekkers to arrive at Florence, where the Smiths did the vignette.

There a small shade cover over the performance area.  

On our way to the next vignette, we drove past, first a family of Antelope, all ages and sizes about a dozen, then we came across a family of cranes, with mixed in youth, and a couple more turns in the road found us coming upon a family of pheasants.  It was so funny, sort of like 'animal family day' at Mosida.  It felt like driving through a game preserve.  We usually see one or two of these animals/birds, but rarely in family groups, and especially not withing five minutes.

Dad did the Hoedown that night.  The gal in the brown apron is our Sister Crump and the gal in the green apron is a Sister Roberts.  She and her husband are around 70, and seemed to be the most popular folks in the ward.

Here are the three gals in our trek leadership on Tuesday morning.  All in half aprons, as it turns out.

I always walk around looking for treasures when we go to our first vignette on Tuesday.  The area, as I have mentioned before, is an old farm dump.  Here are some old equipment pieces rusting in the dry cracked soil.  No wonder they chose this area for their dump.

This is looking across a broader view.

At this vignette we got to meet Brother Roberts, a very out spoken and interesting man of 72 (his birthday was the next day, so we know)  He and his wife are so fun, and vigorous (I mean they're an important part of trek leadership ... she's the one that made the individual tiny loaves of bread  for their hoedown, months ago, that so impressed us all)  They have served a mission in Africa .. yep, the premium servants of the Lord, as far as I am concerned.  Here he shows us the four ounces of flour in a bag, that they'd handed out that morning, to show them the final ration these handcart pioneers got down to before they ran out of flour altogether. 

He also told us (Because we'd been talking about it after prayer meeting that morning) where he was when he heard that the Priesthood had been extended to all worthy males in the church.  He was on a house boat at Lake Powell, with his bishop and their families.  A man in a smaller boat sped past them shouting "The Mormon church is giving the priesthood to blacks."  Its just made me remember how celebratory most members felt when it happened.

Here we are back at the lodge to share lunch.

We hurried home that afternoon to grocery shop and get started preparing the foods on this menu. I had agreed to host  birthday party for my friend Mary, who is a dealer I see at work often.  She had come to the dealer dinner I did a couple of months ago, and thought I could pull off the high level of fun she likes to achieve for her birthday parties. 

I polished my good silver, and set the table and I made the rolls, the duxelles for the Beef Wellington, and the butter balls. 

Then I made and printed off the place tags and menus and set the table as you see here.  Got to bed late, and ....

was very tired on Wednesday morning.  Of course I find the Hollyhocks to be very refreshing.

All so very pretty, even from inside the lodge, as you can imagine.

I thought the gal in the upper left picture looked like a young Hermione.  Her friends didn't see it.  When I blocked her out with these pics, even she saw it ... so fun.

On the way to the river crossing I was surprised by this immature Hawk as I rounded the blind ... he was all puffed up to frighten me with his size ... it was very impressive.  He was back against the blind and stayed there for at least five minutes while everyone came and took his picture.

Here the men do the priesthood walk, while the sister watch.  This was the first group we've had that had several young women in britches.  

We got home in time for the delivery of the flowers, that Mary had ordered.

Then I frantically finished the food ...

and welcomed Mary's guests  .... I think I really bit off more than I could chew with this dinner party.

As you can see in this picture, I am still wearing my pioneer dress ... yep I was just finishing up as Mary announced they were all there and ready to be seated.  I had not even whipped up the maple cream for the soup at that point, but I did so forthwith.

Here is the soggy Beef Wellington, a sad disappointment.  Dad says you should never ask a vegetarian to make a famous and difficult meat specialty.

And the trifle Mary brought.

I'd hired Lilly, my basement renter to serve at table, as a Mrs. Patmore, who had stepped in to serve at Lady Mary's birthday party, even though it was also 'National Servants Day Off day" so that Mary could celebrate on her real birthday. 

Unfortunately, though Lily did great, one person was not enough to serve each person, add accouterments to each dish, serve the 'new wine', Mary had brought for each course, and then pick up the dirty dishes before serving the next.  The mechanics were just wrong.  I always wondered why the English Victorian  Elite service system require one footman to each two people. Now I know, because I ended up working with Lily the whole evening, and sat down just once.  Though I was also acting as sort of the leader of the enacted Downton conversations, as we had all assumed the identity of characters in the TV series.

Here Mary stands as we sing to her, and she gets ready to blow out the candles. She also turned 72 that day.

Mary's friend Robin, who owns a cute shop in Salt Lake County called Robin's Roost, loved the mannequin ... which is a bit ironic, but I will tell you why in a few minutes.

Others were having different kinds of fun up in Idaho ... as Britt's family welcomed their alternate grand parents for a visit.

At work on Thursday, I took a picture of our Pioneer Display for your viewing pleasure.  The blue thing on the far left is actually a real pioneer sun bonnet.

I had someone come in an hour before closing for me, so that Dad and I could head up to Kaysville to see Doug and Shirley's son Andrew and his wife and youngest four children as they participated in this play, that was written and performed in SLC for the Centennial of the Pioneers arrival in the valley in 1947.  

Here are Catherine and Andrew in front of a DUP cabin that was moved to the site a few years ago.

Here they are with their four youngest.

Dad and I had run to the car for head gear, as it was so very hot ... 

In this scene of the play, Andrew, the widowed bishop proposes marriage to a sister in his ward who looses her husband on the trail to the Salt Lake Valley.  It was really very, very sweet.  I cried.

That night I got home to this notice in my email.  The funny thing is that her church records on Family Tree also show that she married my great grandfather in Salt Lake City in 1853.  Hmmm.

That made me laugh.

Then to further my in-depth connection to the pioneers, Robin Heuer and I went to the dedication of Green Flake's memorial at Pioneer Heritage Park at the mouth of immigration canyon.

Here is the group all gathered, including several of the descendants of Green Flake and the other two enslaved people who were honored.  The cool thing is that it was held on the 175th anniversary of the arrival of these three men and others on July 22, 1847 sent to start planting crops ... two days before Brigham Young came into the valley. Many of the local black community in Utah came to celebrate.  I kept thinking of how much my parents wanted and worked for interracial cooperation as I was growing up.  I remember that in every family prayer we prayed that soon the blacks would be able to hold the priesthood.  Having thought of that day, June 8, 1978, in conversations with other missionaries earlier in the week, I think I was sensitized already.  Imagining my parents possibly being there too, and the joy they would have felt, I literally had tears streaming down my face.  Robin took mercy on me, having left my purse in the car, and supplied me with a kleenex.  

Here the Bonner family sings 'I am a Child of God', a different song, than the one we learned in Primary, and so very, very beautiful.

Here is Maulu Bonner as he speaks ... he said something I thought was very wise ..."If we don't know where we come from, we cannot know how far we have come."  I loved that.

Here I am with my girl, Robin.

Here President Ballard and Elder Christofferson leave after President Ballard gave a dedicatory prayer for the statues.

This is Green Flake's Memorial.

Ran into this cute gal who is very into authentic pioneer clothing.  So fun to talk to her.

At DI on the way home, (Thank you Robin) I saw this book and thought I would buy it, until I checked and 

Out of hundreds of pages just these two dealt with the Mormon Migration.

It  got pretty hot that afternoon.

But as we drove to Salt Lake later, there was a little rain to cool things off a bit .... we loved this rainbow over Mount Olympus, our mountain.

We babysat Van and Cam for the evening and took them to a wedding reception for Elder Darian Reed, from our first mission.

Here he is with Elder Owen Krausse with whom he serrved.

The kids were so easy ... 

and cute.

Here we are with Calvin and Katriina Jarvis, and their son Caspian, who lived in our house during our second mission.  Calvin told me that he still has nightmares of a headless bride wandering around the house ... I guess the mannequin had a different effect on him that it did on Mary's friend Robin.

Back at the house we got the kids ready for bed and read to them.

So cute.

This morning Emily came by at 6:00 to go fishing with us at Payson Lakes.  Dad had never told me when they were coming, and he was still asleep.  We hadn't gotten back until late the night before, it is rare that he is not up before 6.

But they had a great time anyway.

A ran into this in my feed this morning, and loved it ... yes there are still pioneers everywhere.

And this record I got for Eva to play on her new birthday record player (She'd an actress remember) is also based on the western migration.

When the Talleys came, the kids wanted to see the whole house.  William asked where the 'wardrobe' was ... he wanted to go to Narnia. 

and so did Abbie.

We all went up to the Payson art show at Peteetneet.

This was my favorite but not for sale.

My second favorite, but 3,000 buckaroos.

And a painting of a view of Winter Quarters ... see everything this week has come down to the common denominator of Pioneers.

The Talleys went into other displays in the museum as well.

Then Cafe Rio for all and to all a full tummy.

And pictures at the temple too.

On the way back to the house I saw this mail box. .... of course.

Becca built this fun house with three entrances, including the round slid into the house. ... how clever is she?

She also suggested we have a Mad Hatter Tea party. 

She was the Queen of Hearts.

Abbie was a cutie pie.

Look at all those fun hats.

We had Scottie dog Scottish short bread, a thank you gift from Mary after her party, as well as left over cake from her party and cucumber sandwiches.

Best Mad Hatter ever.

I even put the garden house back together after the party.

Bekie was so tired she took a little nap.

Dad and I had met Wayman on our way walking to do a Priesthood visit on Friday.  He told us about his sandwich shop and invited us to come on over.  I told him we would, but we're vegetarians, so he promised he would make us the best veggie ever.  He was so fun to visit with, and after I posted this pic on Insta, Becca called to say that she is helping him and his wife to buy a house .... how fun is that?

And the sandwich was yummy ... perfect for an evening in front of a period drama. 

I am now packed for tomorrow, and will blog about our family trip to Oregon, including Sunday, the real 24th and pioneer day.  We hope you've had the opportunity to think about those who settled our fine state as well, and that you appreciate their strength and endurance.