Pioneer Day

On Saturday we went to a Pioneer Day breakfast at church. Pioneer Day is actually on July 24th in Utah and it commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I hear that it's a big deal in Utah with parades, fireworks and rodeos. We're not in Utah, but we did enjoy a great breakfast, parade and games. The kids had a great time.


Sam and Ella in the Pioneer Children Parade. I forgot to dress them in Pioneer clothes, but they didn't mind and thought the whole thing was just great. Sam really takes care of his sister, he often takes her hand and shows her the way if she needs some help.

Sam got right into the games...



5 years ago, for a Pioneer Day Sacrament meeting in our ward in Chicago, I was asked to give a talk on my pioneer heritage. I asked my Dad to send me information on how our family came to join the LDS church in Tasmania in 1899. I found out that it was an Elder B. H. Bingham who taught my grandmother's family. We'll that got me pretty excited. And sure enough, with some further reasarch, we confirmed that it was one of Chris's great, great, great Uncles who had converted them. I bet they never would have thought that their families would cross paths and join together generations later, even though they were on opposites sides of the globe !