Fall Harvest Festival

The Fall Harvest Festival at the American West Heritage Center was so much fun!  I think we will make this a new fall tradition.  

At the Fall Harvest Festival we learned a lot of exciting things about the early settlers of Cache Valley.  We learned how they brought in their harvests, how they used and prepared their harvests for the winter, and we got to see and pet all of the farm animals.  We also went on train rides, wagon rides, and pony rides!

When we first arrived at the Harvest Festival we saw these huge pumpkins!  As you can see they pumpkin was bigger than the kids!

Next we saw a real steam engine tractor.  This was an amazing invention in its day and really helped to lighten the load of the farmers as they hauled hay, or threshed wheat and other grains.  The kids liked this because it reminded them of a train.

Speaking of trains, here the kids are waiting for the train to come around and pick us up.  We were able to ride the little train around the Heritage Center.  Logan loved it.

Petting the farm animals was quite fun. We saw goats, chickens, a donkey, and more.  We also played some exciting pioneer games at the Pioneer Encampment.  Then we watched a gun fight at the Town Square.  It was actually more of a comedy act and pretty amusing.

As I said before, the whole day was spent learning about how the early settlers prepared their harvest.  The first thing we learned was how to shell corn.  

First you have to let the corn dry out, then you stick the cob in this cool corn shelling machine, crank the handle really hard and fast and out pops the empty corn cob and the corn kernels are collected in a pan at the bottom.  The kids got to try their hand at it and shell their own corn cob.  They loved it.  They also taught Cider Pressing but we missed that demonstration...

After wandering around for a bit more, making candles, and exploring the old pioneer homestead, we ate lunch.  We promised the kids if they ate all of their lunch, they would get to do the one thing they had been begging us all day to do, ride the ponies.

This was probably the most favorite activity of the day!  They kids absolutely loved riding the ponies as they walked around the merry-go-round.  We actually ended up doing this twice because they loved it so much.  The pony Logan was riding was named Cosmo.  He was a very gentle pony but then again, they were all quite mellow.

Next we ambled over to the Mountain Man Camp where we learned how to build a fire without matches.  The mountain man made it look so easy but when we tried, it did not go as quick.  Finally though, Russell was able to light a small fire with the cotton tinder and a magnifying glass.

We moved on to the harvest games.  The kids slid down the giant slide, practiced their tomahawk throwing skills, and took aim with the BB guns.  We also loved the pirate ship made out of hay bales.

The kids climbed around and played on this pirate ship for a long time.  They enjoyed pretending to be pirates and running around with the other kids.  Unfortunately, I think Colby has an allergy to hay and dust because his eyes kept itching and getting red and puffy.  We didn't have any allergy medicine so we just washed his hands and eyes with water and that seemed to help a lot.

Back at the Pioneer Encampment, we learned how to make corn husk dolls.  Once I got the hang of it, the dolls were very easy to make.  The dolls were so cute and the kids loved them.  It is amazing how resourceful the early settlers were.  Even with these humble little dolls as toys, they pioneer children still had something of their own to play with.  It really makes you realize how much we take for granted.  Emily, Colby, and Logan had a great time playing with these dolls and still play with them even now at home.  We call them our little corn men.

No Harvest Festival, or Autumn season in general, would be complete with out a walk through a corn maze.  This corn maze was really fun.  We followed the map and easily found our way out without getting lost!  That is a first for me. usually we get lost and can't find our way out forever.  The kids enjoyed picking up the loose corn, choosing left or right when we came to a crossroads and just plain having fun running through the corn.

Finally we took one last wagon ride through the village town square.  This wagon was pulled by huge draft horses.  These horses were so big, probably the biggest horses I have seen besides Clydesdale's.  This was a fun ride.

We went home to eat dinner really fast before heading back to the Harvest Festival to check out the Haunted Hollow.  Even though we told Emily it would be scary, she still wanted to go really badly so we decided to let her try it out.  We stood in line for about a half an hour or more in order to get into the Haunted Hollow.  When we finally got to the entrance, we were greeted by a huge hairy monster.  The kids got scared but we told them it was just a guy in a suit and the monster even gave them a high five.  Then they were okay.  Logan even said, "Goodbye Monster!" when we walked away.  Next we came to a gorilla that stopped us on a bridge.  It gave Russell a hug so the kids weren't scared.  But then we walked across the bridge to a skeleton lady and she was really creepy.  She talked in a sweet voice but the things she said just sent chills through me.  I was a little creeped out by her myself.  That's when Emily started getting really nervous and told us she wanted to leave.  She said she didn't feel good.  So we took a little detour up and out of the hollow and away from the creepies.  Then Emily felt bad that she made us leave so Russell and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to teach about feeling the Holy Ghost.  We asked her if she had a good or bad feeling in the Haunted Hollow and she said it was a bad feeling.  We told her that was the Holy Ghost telling her to leave that bad situation.  We also told her that she had done the right thing by listening to the Spirit and getting out of the situation.  She felt better and we told her she was a very brave and special girl for recognizing when the Spirit is talking to her and listening to it.  We knew we wouldn't last long in the Haunted Hollow but it was a good teaching moment.

We had such a fun time at the Fall Harvest Festival.  We can't wait for more fun activities at the American Heritage West Center.