The Pioneer Day spirit

With this being the first time I've been formally celebrating Pioneer Day, I've been trying to do things to get in the Pioneer Day spirit.

I've been listening to Utah Pioneer Heritage Arts' CDs about Sanpete County and Sevier County, Saga of the Sanpitch and Valley of the Trails, and I pre-ordered the Kane County album, A Canyon Peoples' Portrait. For music that nobody knows about, it's surprisingly good.

I wanted to see sego lilies, so I went running where last month I saw tons of them. But this time they were all gone, even though they were abundant last month! They must be a June thing.

When I eat downtown, I usually go to Kneaders. I think Kneaders is overpriced, but they have the best selection of seasonal desserts in town, so I'm like, "Here! Take all my money!" I would have been satisfied with the patriotic sugar cookies they had for the Fourth of July, but this time they had beehive cookies, which are even better! Their sugar cookies aren't the greatest, but they have great designs.

On Friday I got to go to the funeral for Boyd K. Packer in the Tabernacle. From a distance I got to see the First Presidency and Apostles. I was thinking, "I see everyone but President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen." Then they announced that they were out of the country, so I was right. I was happy that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang a beautiful pioneer hymn, "The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close." I understand why we don't sing it often--it's a little long, and it's very Utahn, and it's a little hard to play--but it's nevertheless an underappreciated song.

Then yesterday my family went to Sugarhouse Park, where we waded through its stream. The location of the park is where Utah's first prison was built in the 1850s, and my great-great-great-great-grandfather Frederick Kesler was a prison warden at some point, I think in the 1860s. I wanted to see the park's historical markers, but I think the park was too big for me to easily find them.