Just a Little Street Fire to Celebrate Pioneers

In Utah on July 24th everyone takes off work and celebrates Pioneer Day...it's pretty much like another July 4th, Utah style.

Every year Neil's cousin, Ian, who works for TNT does a huge firework show in front of his parents house and a bunch of their family friends come to watch it. Last year was my first Street Fire Pioneer Day, and Ian and Colin (Ian's brother and Neil's Best Friend Forever!) did not disappoint. This year was even better, but Colin missed out because he is currently serving his mission in LA, so I made sure to take mucho pictures for him.

This is what thousands of dollars worth of fireworks on the street look like...






Now that's what I call street fire.


The boys setting up for the Grand Finale!






As you can see it was a pretty legit fireworks show. The road still had marks on it from last years firework show and I'm sure this years just added to that.

"I'm NOT leaving until I see a Moose!"

The last week of June I had off work and everyone at work was going on a vacation, and I felt left out, so I made Neil take off work and we went up to Yellowstone for three days.


Neither one of us had ever been before so we did a lot of research on what we should see/wanted to see and planned out our three day Yellowstone trip, and let me tell you...it was AMAZING! We stayed in a cabin in the Lake Area of the park which was very nice...much nicer then I expected.




There were so many incredible things in Yellowstone. I was lucky Neil drove the entire time so I could just look out the window and enjoy the beautiful scenery.






There were also a lot of beautiful waterfalls and cascades that we loved.






There of course were a BUNCH of geysers and mudpots...anything stinky, acidic and steamy is found in Yellowstone...no joke. By the end of the trip we knew we would never be able to enjoy a boiled egg like we did before just because the boiled egg smell was all over Yellowstone...if you've been you would understand.






There was also amazing wildlife. We saw wolves, bears, buffalo up the wazoo, and elk. But of course we didn't see the one animal I wanted to see...a moose. I even told Neil that I wouldn't leave Yellowstone until I saw one...but he made me leave anyways.





On top of being able to see so many amazing things, it was so nice to just spend time alone with Neil and enjoy his company. It's amazing how busy we can get with work so it was nice to not have to stress about anything and just relax together.