This is the Place Monument

The weekend before Halloween, my Grandpa Erickson invited us to go to "This is the Place Monument" for their Halloween celebrations...  Being able to go Trick-or-Treating at a few buildings was fun, but I think they definitely all thought that the train ride was the MOST fun thing we did!

The kids were able to do a fall craft with leaves & a pumpkin craft for Halloween at one building, then pound shapes into a piece of leather at another building.  Laron wasn't able to make it for the first few hours we were there because he was working that day, so it was nice to Grandma & Papa there to help the kids with the fun activities!

After that it was announced that they'd be shooting off the "Candy Cannon" on Main Street in a few minutes, so we headed over there to see what that was all about... Well, it was pretty much what it SOUNDS like it would be-- A cannon that shot out Halloween Candy!  The only problem was that the candy was pretty burnt & smelly after getting shot out of a cannon, so then they had people throwing out OTHER candy onto the road afterwards if you wanted something a little fresher.  Kind-of interesting!

Then we headed over to the Storybook Witch lady & heard a few Halloween stories & songs...

And then found the Old Schoolhouse where the kids enjoyed drawing on the individual chalkboards left at each desk... Skyler thought it looked like a pretty fun classroom, but I just can't imagine teaching ALL the different ages of kids in ONE classroom back then!  It makes me grateful for the schooling our children are provided with TODAY!

Then we went on to discover all the ANIMALS!  Surprisingly, Bailey was the only one brave enough to actually PET the animals, especially a little goat that she became rather fond of.  This was about the time that Daddy met up with us & the kids LOVED running around & showing him all the animals & exciting things!

And then, much to Kimberly's delight, the kids were all able to ride on some horses!  Skyler was nervous, but proud of himself afterward, Bailey started crying as soon as the horse started MOVING (even though I held onto her & walked right by her the whole time) & Kimberly just BEAMED from the moment she got up, to the moment she got down!  It's always so interesting as a parent to see how different all their little personalities are!

After pretending to milk a cow, exploring some old pioneer houses (they were SO tiny!), & having one last train ride back to the entrance of the park, it was time to head home for our ward's Halloween church activity.

It was a fun day, but I'm sure glad we don't walk around quite that much EVERY weekend... I was a little nervous it was going to put this very pregnant Momma into labor!