this is the place

After the aquarium, we visited the “This is the Place” monument in Salt Lake City. This monument commemorates the pioneers, as well as the settlers and explorers of the west. It was named for Brigham Young’s proclamation that the Saints would settle in the Salt Lake Valley (article here)._MG_4534 Now that I’ve seen Utah, I have to wonder, “Why HERE?” Why was this the place? It is a dry desert, with nothing all too special about it. The early Saints were persecuted and driven from their homes in the East, so the Salt Lake Valley became their safe-haven._MG_4540 I was pretty impressed with how TALL it was! (And what you can’t see in this photo is Kaya’s adorably mismatched outfit. She had the biggest blowout in history (thank you, disposable diapers!) just before this, so she was wearing a pink polkadot shirt with blue and brown pants. Stylin’!)_MG_4543