This Is The Place Park

It was home school day at This is the Place Park so Shantel who is home schooling Lydia, invited us to come with them. If you have never been to This is the Place, it is a park that is about the pioneers and Utah history. It has things about the people who settled Utah, from the Indians who were here before, to the Pioneers, to the Gold Rush people. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, I just wanted to spend the day with my sister, but it was so much fun and I wish we could have spent more time there. You get there and they have a "train" that pulls you around from the different parts of the park because it is so large. The conductor talks about the different buildings that are on the park.

The first house we drove by was Brigham Young's pink house. It is not always open because they do wedding receptions and such in it, but it was open on the day we went. The kids didn't want to do that first, and so we decided we would come back to it later. I really wanted to see it, but we ran out of time before we could. I am hoping to come back another day and see it.

We headed up to the Indian part of the park. It was so cool. I feel like I will be saying that sentence a lot. They had two Navajo hogans that you could go in and see. It is so interesting to me to see how people use to live. The kids were able to make a cool little arrowhead necklace.

We walked across the road to the Gold Rush area. Camille loved it here. You got to pan for gold in a little river they had going down. They had put little nuggets of fools gold in the sand and it was pretty much perfect. Camille just sat there finding more and more gold. There was a cool ship that was right next and Lydia and Austin went over there when they were done looking for gold, but Camille being her fathers daughter just wanted to keep looking for more gold. It was so fun to see her enjoying the treasure hunt.

While the other kids went to the panning for gold station Jason headed straight to the ship that was right next to it. I was making sure that Camille was with Shantel and then headed over to find Jason. He had gotten stuck with another family going up the stairs to the top. He was just crying for me, but since someone was behind him, he kept walking up the stairs. It was sweet and funny. I rushed up to him and got him and we walked around for a minute then went back down to Sadie and found everyone else.

After panning for gold and looking at the ship there was a mini train that went around a little pond that we all went and road. The kids really liked it..I think they did anyway. It was a little anti climatic since we had already road the big train that goes on the roads and takes you around, but the kids still had fun.

The big train was just pulling in so we had to run across the field so we could hop on. The mini train guy used his radio and called over so that the big train would wait for us. Jason was so sweet. He was running just as fast as he could, but he just couldn't go as fast as Lydia, Camille and Austin. He was worried that we were going to leave him, so I ran down and got him. I would never leave you anywhere Jason. I love you so much.

We took the train to the hospital.  At the hospital the kids could do a little craft. Jason chose to do a snake, and Camille made a bird house and colored it. They loved it. The hospital had a little display of some things they use to use to treat people. Oh my I was so glad that I live now instead of then. I can't even imagine having a baby back then. If you told the Nurse that you were sick and told her what you were sick with, she would write a prescription for you and you could take it to the pharmacy for some medicine, which was just a lemon drop. Jason told her that Camille's milk makes him sick, since he is allergic to milk. It was actually really sweet.

We walked over to the farm area so that Austin could do a pony ride. On our way there we saw an awesome park so after Austin did his pony ride, we went and ate a little snack and played on the park. The park was awesome. It had a small place to play for the little kids, and had lots of fun climbing structures for the older kids. It was fun to sit and chat with Shantel while the kids played. Shantel asked what time it was and I looked at my watch (have I said how much I love having a watch? I don't know how I lived before I had a watch) and I told her 5 PM and her eyes got big. Apparently the park closed at 5. We were a little sad because we were not able to go to the pharmacy or the bank (where they tell you how much your gold would have been worth back then).

There was so much that we didn't get to. The next time that I go, I am planning the whole day to be there. Packing lunches and spending the whole day. It was so fun and I can't wait to go back.

I love spending time with my sister, and spending it at This is the Place was so fun.