"This Is The Place" Heritage Park.

The real name of this place is the title of this post - but my kids always just call it the Pioneer Village. They love it, and we go every time we visit Utah.

This year, we went twice, once on July 28th with all 4 of my kids, Mum, Alyssa & Kate. Then again on August 18th with Rick and my 3 youngest, Sara with Alyssa and Kate & Corinne and her 3 boys. To save you reading about it twice - I'll combine pictures from both visits into one post.

The favorite place for Emily and the one we always have to go to, is the little house where you can do chores. They LOVE, LOVE washing with the washboard, and then rinsing & hanging clothes out to dry. Emily has wanted one of these for Christmas for the past few years. I've always talked her out of it, but I think maybe we should get one. They could wash doll clothes in it, and hang them out.

Ironing.Washing the clothes in the washtub.

Then hanging them out to dry.Jane loved it every bit as much as Emily does.
She spent ages rubbing on the soap, then scrubbing the same piece of fabric.

Beating the rugs.

Watering the flowers & vegetables.

Playing with this climbing bear was supposed to teach them how to milk a cow ... I can milk, and I don't really see how it taught that, but the kids had fun with it anyway.

Grandma impressed the kids with her mad stilt-walking skills.

It's not as easy as it looks.

This little house is the only one where you can lie on the bed. The kids like trying out a straw bed. I'm always amazed at how tiny everything is. The whole cabin is about as big as my basement, the only bed no bigger than a full and they raised 7 kids there. Amazing.
Then we headed over to the barnyard, where the kids had THE BEST TIME EVER playing with the calf, lambs and pygmy goat kids.

Jane was in love with these little goats sized just right for her. Actually, all the kids were - especially Alyssa. There was a lot of begging for pet goats in the car on the way home.
More pony rides - you can never have enough pony rides.

Rebekah caught this duck in the stream for them to pat.

Going to school - pioneer style.
They learned about the Deseret alphabet, and had a spelling bee.

Jane, trying to pick up her tiny piece of chalk to write on her slate.

This is Brigham Young's farmhouse, it was moved to this location several years ago. It was a very productive dairy, and experimental farm in it's day.

The kids churned butter & then tried it on some yummy bread.

We love to stop at the General Store and play with the toys. Jake really liked the marble race. I love traditional wooden toys like this. If we had more storage space, I would have bought it for him - but alas, it is a little big.

Cool drinks of sarsparilla were in order - it's hot out there!

Jane got a little drum,

The pop-gun was a huge hit with Jacob.

Then we stopped at the barber's for a shave.

They're not sexist - anyone can have one.

This is my favorite place. The little house where they card, spin, dye & weave wool. They also have cotton and flax on display, but don't spin it there.

Emily, carding the wool.

The spinster, spinning. I have long been fascinated with spinning - ever since seeing it as a little girl in Australia. Man how I would love to learn how to do this someday.

Corinne teaching Joshua how to card the wool (it gets all the fibers running in the same direction.) I've got to think it also gets out little bits of grass, etc.

The colors hanging on the wall - all dyed with plant dyes.

Indigo. SO cool.

Em loved this as much as I did, and it was clearly a revelation to her that you can make dye with plants. (We've done it before with Easter eggs, but this was somehow better.)

Her face in this picture says it all. Since then she has made ink on 3 occasions, and also various other dye-like mixes in our backyard. I need to give her some muslin scraps to practice dying. Such a cute little crafty-girl.

Whew, after all that we were tired & headed for home. Great days.