This is the Place!

On Ethan's birthday I packed lunches, checked the kids out of school, drove to Salt Lake to pick up David and then we all went to 'This is the Place' per Ethan's birthday request.  He loves that place!  The weather was wet and cold and I am pretty sure that we were the only guests they had all day!  When we got there the lady told us that during winter hours nothing was open but there was a train ride that we could take around the park and we were more than welcome to just walk around.  Since we brought our own lunches we decided to eat our lunch and then take the train ride.  We were a little disappointed that everything wasn't open but decided that it was okay.  After the train ride we would just go across the street to the zoo instead.

So we met up with Richard the train driver and it turns out that yes, we were the only customers all day.  Who else would be so stupid to go to a pioneer village on a wet and cold day like it was?  He asked us what brought us there and we explained to him that our son Ethan loved 'This is the Place' and it was his birthday and this is what he really wanted to do.  

Richard couldn't have been nicer.  He told Ethan that he was to sit up front with him and wear the engineer hat.  He brought us out blankets to sit on and then we were ready to go.  Over the loud speaker we heard Ethan say, "All aboard!"  David and I thought that that was cute.  Then Ethan proceeded to give us the whole tour!  I couldn't have been cuter!  Then as we approached Brigham Young's house he said "Now lets go inside and check it out!"

It turns out that Richard the train driver had keys to the whole village.  He gave us a private tour of whatever we wanted to see.  Ethan was absolutely beaming and couldn't have been happier!  It was the perfect birthday for Ethan!

This picture above is us coming out of the blacksmith shop, Ethan's #1 favorite spot.

Richard even fired up the little train and gave us a ride around the pond 3 times.  It was a lot of fun!  He told the kids that every time we went through the tunnel we were to all scream like little girls.  The boys thought that was great!

Thanks Richard for an awesome birthday at 'This is the Place'!