On Saturday afternoon, Dan and I took the boys downtown for a much needed field trip out of our apartment. Since we only have one car and Dan takes it to work, I'm left at home with the boys and a limited travel radius around our apartment complex since our area is really new and mostly just construction sites. It was severely limited since before last week we just had a single stroller and could only go as fast as my toddler could walk--which is about the same pace as a snail.
We stop and look at bugs, cars, trees, tractors, dump trucks (from all the new construction around us), people, grass, and anything else that catches his eye. So this means that our daily activity usually means a walk to the apartment playground or to the hill overlooking the Trax station to watch the "choo-choos" go by. I bring blankets to sit on and we sit in the shade and wait for the trains to go by. Ethan loves going to watch the Trax trains and this activity is frequently his reward for good behavior. He's wanted to go on a train ride for a long time and it was such a nice day to go downtown.
We loaded the boys into our new Schwinn double stroller (which I love!) and walked down to the Trax station.
Ethan eagerly watched for the train to pull up and was a little overwhelmed when it came rushing by. He was amazed at how fast the train went once we got underway. He even got Thomas the Train fruit snacks in honor of his first "train" ride.
We got off downtown and walked over to Temple Square. We took a little break on one of the benches on Temple Square since Ethan was getting antsy from being stuck in the stroller for so long. So we stopped and let him run around on the grass for a little while.
My handsome men!
Ethan needs his own sunglasses.
We took Ethan inside the Visitor's Center to see the Christus statue for the first time. He saw it and excitedly started talking about Jesus Christ.
I love going downtown at Christmas time to see the lights at Temple Square, the Nativity scenes, and the Christus statute. We'll definitely be doing that with our kids this If you stand in the middle of the room, right in front of the statue, the acoustics make your voice echo and everyone can hear you even when you talk softly.
We looked around at all the beautiful painting of scripture stories and Ethan pronounced every man with a beard as Jesus. I explained each picture to him and he was excited I said names and stories he recognized like Noah's Ark, Daniel and the Lion's Den, Adam and Eve, and Joseph Smith's First Vision.
Afterwards, we went over to the SL Temple and walked around the grounds. The flowers on the grounds are everywhere and smell fantastic! Ethan kept stopping to sniff them. He climbed up the steps to the huge temple doors. He was upset that they wouldn't open.
I have pictures in these same alcoves next to the doors when I was about his age.
Hanging out by the beautiful flowers.
The Salt Lake Temple is so pretty!
We walked around City Creek Mall for a little while and checked out the Disney store but didn't do any shopping. I mostly just wanted to see the retractable roof over the mall. The boys were fading fast so we went back to the station to go home.
Our tired little boy waiting at the Trax station
This was Austin pretty much the whole trip!
We got home just as the light was fading and the boys were sleepy. It was a fun little family trip downtown and Ethan was so happy that he got to ride the choo-choos!
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