August 4, 2009

The Pioneer Picnic Curse

Every year the White Oak Ward (much like most every ward in the church, I'm sure) has a "Pioneer Picnic" to celebrate July 24th, or Pioneer Day-- the anniversary of the day the first Mormon pioneers entered the Great Salt Lake Valley. It's fun. Hot dogs and burgers are thrown on the grill and everyone brings a side dish or desert to share. The Primary usually organizes various activities that pioneer children may have participated in back in the day. Good times... unless you're Henry.

Both times Henry has gone to the picnic in the past he has been hurt. The first time he was toddling around and tripped and fell on top of the lid of a hibachi grill, burning his arm bad enough to take a trip to the ER. The next time we went, Henry was hammering a nail into a big piece of wood along with 3 or 4 other kids. The kid next to him got a little off target and smashed Henry's thumb with his hammer. There was lots of pain, lots of blood, and lots of crying, but no ER visit. This time, while walking out the door, Randy I joked about what injury Henry would incur.

We arrived, ate, played and soon Maren gave us the cue that she had spent enough time outside in the heat. I gave Henry the "5 minute warning." Randy took Maren to the car and got everything packed up and I waited for Henry to finish his stick-pulling contest with a girl from his class. (picture)They went back and forth until the girl's grasp of the stick slipped. Henry, still pulling with all his might, fell backwards after taking a big blow to his nose with the stick. There were a few gasps from the small crowd that had gathered to watch the friendly competition, but Henry took it like a man and stood up like nothing happened. As I put my arm around him and asked him if he was okay I noticed blood starting to come out of his nose. I knew we were in trouble at that point, but surprisingly Henry made it all the way to the car before he felt it was safe to burst into tears. Again, lots of blood, but thankfully no ER.

Now whenever we see a picture from the picnic, or even if the topic of pioneers comes up, Henry says, "I don't like Pioneer Day." He'll get over it.

Here are a couple of extra shots-- not of the picnic, but of FHE that next day. We went to mom's house and ate s'mores around the campfire while Mom told us stories about our pioneer ancestors. Fun!

Mom, Me, Maren, Anna, and Henry. (Bill was working and Randy's shooting-- pictures, not guns.)

Maren vs. Marshmallow.

The marshmallow eventually won and Maren settled for plain chocolate.

Henry, after hours of waiting and whinning, finally got to make his s'more. Next time I'll keep it a secret until we walk out Grandma's back door. Jeesh!

Random shot-- Henry chasing the deer away from Grandma's flowers.

5 comments:

MaryBeth said...

Poor lil' dude. And I want to play with you guys :(

Emma said...

that sounds fun - the s'mores in the backyard - not the smack in the nose. our ward did jack for pioneer day. i don't even think we sang come, come ye saints. tim and i did our own bbq for the occasion

My Name's Sarah said...

That's crazy!!! What's up with Bountiful?

A. Schoonie said...

ouch! you better keep him away from that bbq or they say things happen in 3's so maybe he has had his 3 things happen now!

Josh, Sandy, Jaclyn, Kinsey, and Caleb said...

Poor Henry! At least you didn't have to make a trip to the ER.

Looks like Maren had fun with the smores. Gosh, that sounds really good right now. I love smores! :)