Today is Pioneer Day, What is pioneer day you ask? Well, it is an official holiday in Utah, it commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois, where they sought refuge after the Mormon War where the State of Missouri led by its governor passed a law, known as ‘Missouri Executive Order 44’ to exterminate the Mormons from the state in 1838. Executive order 44, was law until it was rescinded in 1976. (Yes 1976! The year after I was born!) In reviewing the Brigham Young Company, the group of Mormons who arrived in Salt Lake City valley on that July day, some very interesting names show up. For starters John Doyle Lee. (of the Meadows massacre fame, he also ran a ferry in Arizona across the Colorado river known as Lee’s Ferry) He was a captain of fifty of the train, and led one Edwin Westover, and Joseph Bartholomew Sr. and their families. From those two families you eventually have a grand daughter by the name of Beulah Westover… who was my Grandmother! So while I’m not a Mormon, nor do I live in Utah, I still celebrate this day, the fortitude and determination of those people during this time is important to remember. Not to mention without them, I wouldn’t be here!

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We’re forecasted to have a major heatwave this next week. 105-110 all week. Harleys getting an early start to keeping cool this morning! 😂 for our first summer here in the southern-Midwest (yes that’s what I call Oklahoma) it’s been very hot (record breaking) and very dry! Reminds me of the non-soon we’ve had in Arizona the past five years! 😂

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I’m going to need a trophy room for all of Harleys kills. 😂 #toyapocalypse

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