Happy July 24th (Pioneer Day to You Non-Utahns)!

I love Pioneer Day. Not the parades and traffic and fireworks, but playing the old games with your family, remembering the sacrifices made by those who colonized the west, and just generally enjoying your family. 

On your mark...get set...

We had all the cousins over so we could make a mess with homemade root beer and homemade ice cream.

...and GO!

Then we had potato sack races.

We played tug-of-war, everybody against Mark.

We kept adding grown-ups, but Mark always won.

And we made covered wagons. My kids were really impressed, they didn't know I have a crafty side.

Well, a little bit of a crafty side. They got less impressed when I broke half the wagon axles and the covered wagons had to be turned into ox-carts. That's authentic too - right?