Heritage Park

Today we went to This is the Place park. The general idea of the park is that long ago, when the pioneers crossed into the Salt Lake valley, Brigham Young looked out over the valley and announced, "It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on." Someone marked the spot where he said that and a monument, and now park, are in that location. The park is basically a little village full of old pioneer buildings. There are different crafts you can do and pioneer-like things to see.

One of the things we got to do, which I don't have a picture of, was go on a pony ride. My niece, Agnes, got on first and seemed fine. So Caleb and I approached one of the other small horses (they really looked too big to be ponies). He was fine being near the horse, and even pet it several times, but would not for the life of him get on the thing. He screamed bloody terror and grabbed onto me tighter than he ever has, when I tried to put him on the horse. Needless to say, we didn't do a pony ride at that time. After Caleb freaked out, Agnes thought better of the idea and wanted off too.

We tried again a little while later. I thought maybe the saddle had been too hot and we chose a different horse that had a cloth over the saddle. We pet the horse for a little bit and Caleb seemed to like it. Then the horse turned to look at us and Caleb started freaking out again. I let the horse smell my hand, and it nibbled on me a little. Caleb thought that was fun and reached out for the horse again. So I put him on its back. Still a no go. Since we were the only ones there at the time, the guy in charge turned the machine on for us (there are four horses attached to a pole and when the machine is on, the pole moves and all four horses walk in a small circle). We did one circle, and Caleb still wasn't a fan. But at least he wasn't clutching on to me. So all in all, I think he did reasonably well. After Agnes saw Caleb do it, she wanted to try again. She was still scared, until the horses started walking and then she thought it was fun. She even went again before we left the park.

They had a watermelon contest going on. Caleb and Agnes entered the 12 and under contest. They weren't supposed to use their hands to eat the watermelon and they were supposed to wait till the offical "go" before starting to eat it. Needless to say, neither child followed either rule. A kid across the table from us started to protest, but soon realized how ridiculous his complaints were. As if my one year old child could possibly eat an entire piece of watermelon before the older kids, even if he did get a ten second head start. I think by the time the contest was over, Caleb ate all of three bites.

He sure did love munching on that watermelon for the next hour or so. It was so hot out, so it was nice for him to have some sort of liquid going back in him. And that kid loves watermelon.

After the first failed pony ride attempt, we went into the "petting zoo." Caleb didn't want anything to do with any of the animals. He just wanted to keep eating his watermelon.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who wanted to eat his watermelon. This cow totally attacked him. Seriously, Caleb nearly got run over, but I pulled him back. Sadly, he dropped the watermelon in the midst of the chaos and the cow got the rest of it.

Another fun thing that we got to do was go on a little train ride around the pond. (There was another big train that went around the entire park, but the kids loved the little train more.) Caleb wanted me to hold him the whole time, so I didn't get any pictures of him on the train, but Agnes sure thought it was fun.

Here's a photo of Caleb wandering through the corn field. It only lasted two pictures worth. But I guess that's for the best since my battery was flashing warning signs at me anyway, threatening to die.

There were a bunch of different crafts and activities for the kids to do. We were so hot and tired being outside, that by the time we decided to do some of the crafts, we just got them to go. Most of them were already made, and the kids just got to color them. We figured we could color them just as easily at home, where there's air conditioning. The best things we got were a little wooden treasure box on a keychain and a wooden flute. The kids also got to help pound ink on the old printing press. Caleb loved that -- he loves to bang on things. He also loved the wooden train they had in the play area.




All in all, a fun, but very tiring day. I think we would have called it quits a lot sooner if we hadn't paid so much money to get into the place.