Brother Brigham's Pioneer Ball

Saturday night my sister Jenny, my mom and I took Dynamite, Confidence and Vivacious and their cousin, Emma, to Brother Brigham's Pioneer Ball, a re-enactment of old Pioneer dances in Brigham Young's time (the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847). The kids had a blast, dancing and running around like crazy people. My mom loves to dance, so she was in her element. Here are some pictures so even if you missed it you can feel like you were there. Plan now to come next year; it was so much fun!

Full pioneer dress was encouraged, but not required, so people came in a wide variety of styles. Some were in modern-day casual or church clothes, others in pioneer-era attire and some in Civil War period dress. One lady even came in a dress that her husband's ancestor brought with them in a wagon across the plains (see below)! It was fun to see everyone's costumes; it was the only kind of costume party I'm interested in dressing up for!

Vivacious and Grandma dancing.

Dynamite, driving the train (above). Confidence & Vivacious, as riders (below).

My sister, Jenny, and her daughter, Emma.

Vivacious, Emma and Confidence.

Vivacious and Dynamite, trying to follow the "caller's" instructions.

Emma and Vivacious. My camera has a really long delay between when you push the button and when the picture actually takes. It also seems to be having flash problems. My sister's camera was also malfunctioning, so most of the pictures we took weren't great.

This is Dynamite, posing by the horse coral (sp?). Cute, huh? Dreamer brought this cute bowler hat home for Dynamite when he went to Las Vegas for a conference and Dynamite wears it all the time now. You'll also want to notice his Sheriff badge and cowboy boots. He enjoyed getting dressed up. This is the pose I asked him to do for the camera.

This is the pose Dynamite wanted to do for the camera. Unfortunately, as soon as I snapped the picture, he fell backwards into the coral and landed directly on his head. The fence was about 4 feet high, so I think his head fell about 5 feet onto the hard dirt. In retrospect, I think he got a concussion because when he got up he was dizzy and he was crying harder than ever (he's a very tough little boy). Once I got him back over the fence he started asking what happened and when I said that he fell he asked where. I said, "Remember, you fell off the fence?" To that he would reply, "What fence?" He asked these same questions over and over. The remainder of the evening he was extremely clingy and just wanted to lean on me or be held. He continued to ask those questions off and on all evening. He said his head hurt, then it got better for a while, then worse again. He also seemed to be more clumsy with bouts of dizziness. The next morning he said when he tried to get out of bed his leg didn't work and the top of his head felt "funny", so he scratched it, and then something about scratching his head affected his foot. I know, it sounds odd. He then said his head hurt when he was washing his hair. Probably just a bruise, but today I'm taking him in to the doctor, just to be sure there isn't anything more serious, although he's acting normal now.

Here are Emma and Vivacious outside the child-size village. Don't they look sweet?

Dancing in the child-size village, where they didn't have to share floor space.

Dancing is more fun when you have your own stage! (It's 3 picnic tables scrunched together.)

By this time, the crowd had thinned a bit and most of the children were gone. It also seemed to me that the best dancers were the ones that were still there -- either that or they became the best dancers because they had been there, practicing, the longest. The woman pictured at the far right is the one with the authentic pioneer dress. Isn't it beautiful? She was about 6' tall, so it is remarkable that a pioneer's dress fits her, since people were shorter back then than they are now.

A blurry picture of my oldest 3 kids and I. I'll need to get a better copy from my mom's camera.

I wish I had thought to have someone take a picture of my mom, my sister and I. Maybe next year. Oh yah, and we need to start working on our costumes for next year so they won't be so thrown together! I always feel like sewing in the fall, so maybe that will be my project. Then again, maybe I'll just find someone who's been on Trek and borrow their clothes. Who doesn't want their very own pioneer costume and matching bonnet, though???