Ten Thousand Steps

Last week I was busy. In addition to my usual, cooking, cleaning, laundry, potty training the dog, potty training the twins, cleaning up after the dog, cleaning up after the twins, I took Jack on an all day adventure to Lagoon and the very next day took all the kids and met my Mom at Heritage Park for a day of pioneer fun. My grueling two days of walking started early Wednesday morning, my wonderful Mother in Law agreed to watch James and the twins for the day until Jer could get home from work. We met my girlfriends and their kids at Lagoon. It was awesome! We called it Mommy and Jack Day! Over and over Jack said "Mommy and Jack Day was the best day ever!" I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I rarely, if ever, have had a day with just Jack.








Jack was tall enough to ride almost all of the rides, and fortunately had absolutely no fear.....or sense! We did it all, the roller coaster, rattlesnake rapids, colossus, the bat, hydro luge, Odysea, wild mouse, log flume, the rocket, the sky ride, tidal wave and the wicked...three times! That last one took me by surprise, it's a shot right out of the gate that I was unprepared for, but Jack just screamed to do it again and again. Thanks to some of my girlfriends' older kids, I was spared repeat rides, as they were willing to cater to Jack's never ending sense of adventure (I even heard them talking that Jack was tough and fun for such a little kid).


I was sunburned, soaked, and had a raging headache by the time the day was over, but it was worth every minute. We left after the park closed and fell exhausted into bed sometime after 11PM. Thanks girls, let's do it next year! (And a big thanks to Tam. You know what you did.)
Just as some of the feeling was coming back to my toes, it was time to pack up and haul the kids to "This is the Place" Heritage Park for our next day of fun. My Mom had taken the day off work and invited my sister and I and our 8 kids to have lunch and spend the day learning what it was like to live as a Pioneer. I was packed up and left my house at 8AM (Did I even sleep at all?). We walked around the cute little town wandering in and out of authentic pioneer houses. All were accurately furnished, right down to the lumpy straw mattresses. All the homes, and businesses had people dressed in pioneer outfits, even the kids and babies were all dressed in accurate clothing from the time.


My kids got to lay in straw mattress beds, wash laundry by hand and hang it out to dry, beat the dust out of rugs with big sticks (a personal favorite of Jameson), hoe dirt lines to irrigate an actual garden, pound designs in leather swatches, make hats, dip candles, ride horses, heard sheep,

learn to write their names on tiny chalkboards in an authentic pioneer classroom, play with little tops, and other era accurate toys and finally a ride on a miniature train around a little lake.

My personal highlight was lunch, homemade turkey sandwiches "mom style" cranberry sauce and cream cheese, and homemade banana bread (thanks Dad, your best by far!) yum!


My kids especially loved the petting yard, Addison kept following the heard of baby sheep around, trying to kiss them. Greyson loved the miniature goats and the boys took a liking to a giant, scary looking, but very tame rooster


(Yes, I intentionally dressed my kids alike, I needed all the help I could get keeping track of four kids under five on my own!). I had never been there before, but highly recommend it, for both adults and kids alike. It took all day, and we still didn't see all they have to offer, but again worth every step.
We left dirty, dusty and several hours past nap time. We arrived home just in time for me to change clothes, head to the big "W" and spend the next seven hours standing. By the time it was all over it was well after midnight and I could barely walk...I would have made a lousy pioneer, it literally took me two days to recover as I hobbled around on my sore legs and swollen feet. I happy to report I'm doing much better now, good thing too, we're starting another adventure tomorrow.