Ants, Mermaids and the Pioneers...only on the 24th of July!

Being a Holiday, and a Friday as well (you know the theme...field trip Friday), we decided to take a break from the hum drum life at home and venture out into the wilderness (yes...we quickly learned that we were not alone in our plans...everyone else was looking for a get away too and we ended up feeling like we were in the city... because there were SO many people). We packed a picnic lunch and jumped in the truck and drove up the mountain to Moon Lake. Todd and Dana didn't have any plans for the day, so we invited them to go along too. We found a nice sandy place on the beach and pulled out our lunch and started eating. After lunch we sat there and just looked like a bunch of lost sheep. We hadn't made any specific plans on WHAT we were going to do when we got there, besides eat, so everyone just sat around watching all of the other people do THEIR things. We saw one guy floating around the water on an air mattress (the kind your supposed to sleep on), we watched a young dad take his kids for a little ride on a raft that someone had lashed together (we were actually waiting for it to sink..it didn't look "float worthy")...we watched ants "un-bury" themselves after Cameron covered them up...we just "people watched", which is sometimes more fun than anything else. Then one of the kids grabbed a spoon and started digging and that got everyone digging in the dirt, making tunnels, sand angels, turtles, castles...sand stuff, you know~ the kinds of things that we all make when we are in the sand. THEN...after that lost its excitement...the boys decided that they should bury Dana and make her into a Mermaid. She played along and let them bury her...she kept laughing so the sand on her belly kept cracking, so they decided not to cover her that far up...at least for now. After they got her fins made they decided to go ahead and completely bury her~but to give her "boobs" this time...well that brought in a crowd of onlookers to see what was going on. Two little old ladies got a real good laugh out of it as they were walking their dog along the beach, I think that we made their day. Cameron was the only one that took a dip in the water. Moon Lake is always really cold and poor Cameron discovered that the hard way, he ended up coming out of the water just about as fast as he went in...which was REALLY QUICK! A day at Moon Lake, with the family, lots of food, sand and many people sure beats the days of the pioneers when they spent their days walking through mud, heat, and rain. Dealing with the trials of sickness, death, mobs and then wondering if they were ever going to get to the end of their journey. The 24th of July is a fun family holiday for us, but its also a day that I try to reflect on my Utah heritage and the blessings that I have because of the sacrifices that my pioneer ansestors made.