This is the Place!

Well, right at this moment, Mr. Cowboy and I are in Buena Vista, Colorado. Enjoying the views and enjoying the ranch life. So, while we are gone, I am going to finish up my Utah vacation. If you ever go to the Salt Lake Valley, you must go to the "This is the Place Monument and Village". It's so much fun. It's like going back in time to a Pioneer Village. Not only is the monument up on the mountain side and has breath taking views, it's also very inexpensive. There is a free train ride that takes you around the outside of the Village. The driver of the train gives a detailed account of all the buildings in the Village. Grandma and the Cowpokes sat and waited patiently for the train ride to start. We got there fairly early and beat the crowd. The Cowpokes were really excited for the train to start. Little Cowpoke got to ride up front in the train and ring the bell as we drove around. He was so excited about that. There is a lot of open space up there. I missed seeing open space while in town with my parents. Ponies in an apple orchard. The Pony Express. In the Village there were several different homes, shops, bank, hotel, and school. There were people that volunteer there and are stationed in the buildings. They tell you all about that building and what it was used for. There are also crafts inside the buildings. So much to do for just one small price! This little one room house was home to a family with 10 children. We learned that the youngest of the family had to take care of the bed pan! Gross, I am not sure I would trust the youngest to take that out and not spill it everywhere. Back behind the house the kids got to do some chores. The boys of the house were in charge of the laundry. So, Little Cowpoke, take it away! Cowpokette couldn't be shown up. She wanted to do some laundry too. She was really good at it. Maybe I should get a washboard for her to do laundry at home. After our house chores were done we headed over to the bank to talk business. We weighed some sliver shavings and learned a lot about early banking. After we got some money from the bank we headed to the barber shop for a quick shave before school. We start shaving at a young age in the south!! Then the knife was sharpened. I love the look on Little Cowpoke's face! He isn't too sure what's about to happen next!! When scared just close your eyes and everything will be just fine. While the Barber was telling us that she not only does hair cuts and shaves, but she will also extract teeth! Oh my!! And that is the tooth extractor! Oh my goodness!! That doesn't look like fun at all. Good thing they gave you some of this before........ It'll knock you out cold!! Could you imagine that? I am so grateful for modern Dentistry. We finished up at the Barber Shop just in time for school. Ms. Rachel was waiting for us all to arrive. Some of the kids must have been sick or working in the fields because the room was pretty empty. But that didn't keep Ms. Rachel from teaching us our daily lessons. Ms. Rachel was teaching us about the Deseret Alphabet. It was rather confusing. It was made to help people who did not speak English communicate with others. I think just teaching them regular English would have been easier. This was rather confusing. Here is the word ate/eight. It is just scribbles if you ask me. Here is my name. Can you read that? Here is Grandma's name. She gets some dollar signs in her name! She must be special. This boy didn't do his homework and was sent to stand in the corner and hold two books behind his back. Ms. Rachel forgot about the poor boy. He stood there for a while. He was a good sport about it. The boys had to sit on one side of the room and the girls sat on the other side. Little Cowpoke was all excited to be in school. He liked the idea of having a chalk board. At the end of class Ms. Rachel had to get me back in line. Little Cowpoke is clueless and what is Cowpokette doing? It's always so funny to look at people in the background of pictures!! But after that school was let out and we moved on. We met up with my sister and her kids. We then visited a barn. And oh was it wonderful. My kids were missing animals so badly!