Month: April 2014

Baby Animal Season at This Is The Place Heritage Park, Salt Lake City, Utah

I love springtime, especially as a mom. Not only does warm weather return, but flowers, gardens, and new baby animals offer countless opportunities to experience the outdoors with my tots.
During spring break I convinced my mom to have a grandma day at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. I had never been there before but had heard that every year they have baby animals come to visit and I wanted to see some cute chicks. So my tots joined their cousins on a fun filled day in the past.


In addition to baby chickens, goats, pigs, donkeys and cattle we watched a rope maker pull rope, pounded prints into leather, learned about trapping and tanning animal skins, panned gold, rode on ponies, splashed in a fountain and took a train ride. I had no idea there was so much to do here!

This is the Place Heritage Park is an outdoor museum with buildings from the 1800s and people dressed in period garb. The location boasts a monument marking Brigham Young’s arrival in the Salt Lake Valley leading Mormon Pioneers in 1847. Reconstructed log cabins, homes, a farm, leather works, and the old Deseret Hospital are available for exploring at this State Park.

Of course my tots enjoyed the baby animals, but they also really liked riding the train and panning for gold. I enjoyed the fluffy chicks as well, but mostly I liked watching my kids’ reactions to them. Spring is the time for all things young and cute, including Big E and little g.

Information:
Park Hours
9:00 – 5:00 Monday – Saturday
10:00 – 5:00 Sunday
Visitor Center Hours
9:00-6:00 Sunday – Saturday
Admission
$11 adults, $8 kids and seniors, Free 2 years and younger Monday-Saturday
$5 adults, $3 kids and seniors, Free 2 years and younger Sunday

For more information click here for the This is the Place Heritage Park website.

Check This Out for National Park Week, April 19-27, 2014

 
Check out this cool infographic I received from the National Park Foundation in honor of National Park Week April 19 – 27, 2014. I never knew black bears could eat up to 20,000 calories in a day.

Plant a Garden – It’s Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!
I love gardening, even though I have not been very successful with it. Our home is in the forested mountains near Sundance, Utah. Sunny space on our lot is limited so, I attempt to grow things using the Square Foot Garden method. There are lots of reasons gardening in my location is a bad idea.
1. Cold – at roughly 7,000 feet elevation and with a ski resort as a neighbor you can imagine how our winters are – long, snowy and cold. We get heavy snowstorms well into March and even through the summer the temperature drops below sixty degrees in the evenings.
2. Animals – I hear the sounds of wild turkeys on a daily basis. Deer, rabbits, blue jays, squirrels, robins, and countless other unseen creatures live in the woods around our home, and they’re all hungry.

3. Effort – Any gardener knows that growing things takes effort. My fifty percent success rate in years past, meant that after weeks of watering, weeding, and mulching, only half of what I planted actually grows to fruition.
And yet, even with this obstacles in my way, every spring I get excited to put seeds into dirt and watch them grow. The weather warms, the birds start chirping and something in my brain convinces me to get my hands dirty once again. 
I’m not the only one. Big E loves to help me plant, watch the seeds progress and water the garden. He’ll look at the indoor starts every morning and report back with glee, “Mom! The tomato seeds sprouted!” or “Look! Broccoli!”
Perhaps his joy rubs off on my as well, because in addition to the pleasure of feeling the sun on my skin, accomplishing difficult tasks, and watching plants grow, I also get to watch my son and daughter grow. Respecting the earth is one lesson I want my kids to learn and planting a garden has been a great way for them to learn it.
When I plant a garden I’m growing more than just flowers and vegetables. I’m growing a love of nature in my children, smiles on their faces and joy in the fascination of life. And suddenly all the work is worth it.