This is the Place

We had heard of and driven by This is the Place Heritage Park for years, but had never actually been there. In fact, I had known so little about this place before, so when family was in town and had planned a day to spend there we jumped at the opportunity to join them!

This monument up close is so much bigger than I had imagined or had seen off Sunnyside Avenue on our way to the zoo.

The train/trolley does a loop through the "village" and makes stops to favorite spots. If you decide to get off and look around an area you can wait for the next train to pick you up when you're finished.

Brigham Young's farm house was impressive. After touring it we decided that none of us had thought there were homes that nice in those days. Most every structure in the park has been re-located from down town Salt Lake. This farmhouse was originally built in Sugarhouse on 700 East and 2300 South! One American President has stayed there as well as Mark Twain!

 In the town, there are shops, a bank, hotel, saddlery, a half-way house, school, shaving parlor, native American village, blacksmith, petting corral, and many homes. 

 Ashton really enjoyed himself, and I think the pony rides were his favorite. We purchased wrist bands that allowed us to do 3 crafts/activities. We adults let the kids use our 3 activities so they could do more.

These small log cabins are everywhere. This particular cabin is 8x8 and housed 9 people. The size of the cabins were not determined by a family's wealth, they were made as big as they could with as much supplies that were available in the area at the time of building.

We passed this fort on our train ride through the town. I thought the scenery was amazing as well as the structure itself. I could not help making a couple of the photos "antique" and posted both of these.

At the saddlery you can stamp leather which was fun for the kids. There are various activities in each of the buildings, like yarn dolls, beading, pioneer chores, parlor games, gold processing and panning, rug making, spinning and weaving. We had limited time and were not able to even touch on half of what was there to see and do.

For an old ghetto cell phone, it took pretty good photos on this trip. I was pleasantly surprised!

The monuments, plaques, and statues are everywhere and really set your mind back to the pioneer days of sacrifice. My favorite is this "Journey's End". The family kneeling in prayer at the end of their journey reminds me to thank the Lord for my trials, for strengthening me to endure them, and for carrying me through when I was too weak.

We plan to go back and experience it all. It is something that would definitely take a full day. It had fun things for all ages, even a restaurant and a Farr's ice cream parlor. I wish I'd realized this place had more to it before now.  I am in the pioneer spirit and what a great month to be so!

Sushi n' a Tattoo

 Cousin Emma came to visit, so naturally we went to get some sushi! They both loved being able to use their own chopsticks and eat tempura veggies. Both were eager to sample the sushi part of my meal, but that's all it remained for them due to the strange taste... a sampling.

Ashton came home one weekend with an airbrushed tattoo of a dragon. To his delight it lasted quite a while. We took care not to wash it, or rub it, but eventually it's time came to an end after a day at the pool. He woke up the next morning and had quite the cry-fest about how he would not be able to show Emma now that it was gone forever. Aaron is such a good dad, he consoled him with zero sarcasm and loads of empathy.

Kung Fu Ashton??

Ashton was enrolled in karate! He attends at the WestWind Karate School here in Sandy, UT. He goes to class twice a week and so far LOVES it. On his first day, the sensei asked everyone to bow and introduce themselves. When it got to Ashton's turn he proudly announced that his name was "Poe" and followed it with a bow. "Poe" is the panda on one of his favorite movies "Kung Fu Panda". I'm sure the sensei has never had that happen in his dojo and thought it quite hilarious, but since the class focuses on learning respect he had to explain to Ashton that in their karate class they should not joke. The "funny" thing is that Ashton was dead serious. He was not joking. He had full intentions of being referred to as his favorite martial arts character!

We think this will be a great experience for him, and we love the idea of him being more physically active.

Here's my side note. I have mentioned before that I need to stop taking camera phone pics, but at karate I took my real camera only to have every single one look terrible. Blurry, too bright, bad color. What the heck right? Maybe it was the lighting, who knows. I will mess around with the adjustments on it and see if I can get it taking better photos for me, that or get a new camera :)

Movies in the Park

This summer we discovered that most of the cities in the valley do a movie in the park a few times throughout the summer. For Sandy City it rotates to different parks every other week or so. It is awesome! There have been 3 so far, we've attended 2, and it really is a fun activity. They have played the Justin Bieber movie, Shrek Forever After, and How to Train Your Dragon. Being outside in blankets snuggling with our little family is so much fun. The movies are played on a big blow-up movie screen and the sound is put out, LOUDLY, by large speakers. We plan to attend the rest of these movies and are even going to attend some in other cities as well as the movies played on Capitol Hill!

Pretty good images for a crappy cell phone!

Get Up, Stand Up

Aaron and I had our holiday of the 4th alone together this year. Our ward scouts had a breakfast that was hearty and delicious! We ate in the rain, but it made it exciting :) That afternoon Aaron cut both mine and my mom's hair, followed by a sushi lunch at Nagoya with a friend of Aaron's. After lunch we went to ColdStone and sat outside for hours talking with our friends before heading to Liberty park to see The Wailers! Bob Marley obviously wasn't there to represent, but the music was awesome. Bob Marley and The Wailers is one of our favorites, so we are so glad we found out about it and went!