July 25th-31st

Pioneer Day Celebrations at This the Place Heritage Park

We hadn’t gone to the parade for pioneer days this year so I wanted to go see the special events at the park. They had two days of it, Saturday and Monday, since Pioneer Day was on Sunday. We went on Monday so it would be less crowded. There were people dressed up in pioneer costumes throughout the park such as this lady that Remi got a picture with.

We arrived a little late because I had been finishing adjusting the plans and sending them to the engineer. We missed the candy cannons and the pioneer dance. We could have done the watermelon eating contest, but we didn’t have much time so we decided to do other stuff first.

First the kids wanted to ride the train to the top of the hill. In the Indian village Remi and Locke made bead bracelets. They had to dig for the beads. Remi only wanted purple ones, a few pink and shiny clear ones. Her bracelet turned out beautiful. Locke’s bracelet had the favorite colors of each of the kids. Purple for Remi. Red for Locke and Link.

Ringing in the Anvil

This was listed as one of the special events of the day. We didn’t know what this was. Workers said it was something people did in the 1800’s at celebrations, like we do fireworks today. We were riding the little train when it was about ready to start, and I had hoped to get off and walk down to the place where people were gathered for it. Someone was telling all about it there. But then the train guy took us around a second time and stopped at a location we could see. He said the train came off the track, but it was a little too convenient of a spot. We sat in the train and watched as a guy in a field lit something and then took off running. We waited a while but nothing happened. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion like the sound of a cannon and something big flew into the sky and then came back down.

The kids were really impressed, and as soon as we got off the train they ran down to look at the anvil. They weren’t allowed to touch it, probably because it was hot.

Firing the anvil is kind of like firing off of cannons during a celebration, but instead using a common tool that was around in every town, a blacksmiths anvil. They put two anvils together and put gun powder charge between them with a fuse. It can be really dangerous, so the practice was stopped a while ago. The train guy said that it began during the civil war when the union army was trying to destroy anvils to stop the south from making arms and also horseshoes for the calvary. But instead they just blew straight up and came back down, probably on top of them. Someone started using it for celebrations after that.

Shops Tour

AFter that we went to some shops as we walked down the hill. I had never been to these shops.

Telegraph Office

The kids had fun tapping on the two telegraph machines and sending pretend messages. There was a board with dots above Link that shows what letters the taps represent. It would have taken forever to tap out a message.

Boot Maker Shop

The Anderson Home

The Cabinet Shop

Furniture makers displayed their wares on their roof.

The Pottery Shop

The Drugstore

The Leather and Saddle Shop

At the saddle shop the kids got a small piece of leather that they could hammer stamps in such as flowers, or smiley faces, etc. They really liked this activity. They got three crafts or pony rides that got marked off on their wristbands. They did the bracelet, the leather, and the pony ride.

Bank

Next Locke went to the bank to have his gold he found in the stream weighed. He found out that the little pieces were worth a lot more than expected, if they had been real gold.

Across the street was ZCMI and the kids had fun looking at the toys and candy in there. Then they played in the splash pad.

Pony Rides

We got in line just in time for the pony rides. We were the last ones of the day. They all really wanted to ride the ponies. Remi rode one all by herself. They all had big smiles as they rode.

Playground

Lastly, we went to the playground. I wish we had had time to go do the pioneer games like stilts, but we had a fun day.

Ali and John

Ali and John went to Little Rock this weekend. It’s a big city, so it has lots to do. John’s work is headquartered there. They went to a company party and hung out with his work friends.