Pioneer Day Excitement

The Days of '47 epic weekend started with a rodeo. I haven't been to a rodeo since I was probably 5 years old, and really didn't know what to expect. But angry bulls running at people? Pure scary excitement.

Look at the height on this guy. People do this for fun? Who thought of riding a bucking animal in the first place? Definitely not a woman, I can tell you that.

So in remembrance of Pioneer Day, we decided to recreate Pioneer times and live outside without any amenities...well not really, but we definitely "roughed it" over the weekend. We hiked up into the Uintahs and camped at Echo Lake. In a tent. Without facilities, if you catch my drift. And I'm not much of a pee-in-the-woods kind of girl, but dehydrating myself didn't seem to work. TMI. Sorry.

Brett was in his element. He's such a cowboy-redneck at heart.

It was truly beautiful and remote.

Scott & Elyse even went swimming. In a high mountain lake. COLD. CRAZY.

I'm not wearing my sweatshirt for protection from the cold. I'm wearing it for protection from the 10 billion mosquitoes that also seem to love the scenery.

We hiked up to a lake that was even more remote than the one we were camped at. I really felt like we were the only people around...it was kind of scary/liberating.

Scott caught a mystery fish. Really pretty though, no?

Sunset. It seems tranquil, but that is only because the mosquitoes are too small to capture on camera.
All in all, it was a lot of fun, but we were glad to come home. We ate at Chick's in Heber with the Lam Fam which is a 24th of July family tradition and then slept away the afternoon until we went to fireworks.

They look so pretty, right? We went to Liberty Park with Scott and Elyse. We totally talked up how amazing the fireworks were when you were close enough to see the ground show and set up really close to the field where they set the fireworks off. Well, about halfway through the show there was some sort of explosion and one of the trailers that held the fireworks TIPPED OVER and started shooting fireworks right at us! I saw one lady get hit and I remember thinking that is so close, and then it was like a war zone with fireworks exploding all around us. We grabbed our chairs and ran! It was so scary!! What a way to end the weekend!

And can I just give props to myself for posting 3 in a row? I better get some comments for all this hard work. ;)