My Utah Trip: Family Week: Day 4, Down Town

On Thursday, we loaded up in the car and drove to the Salt Lake City cemetery, to visit the grave of Gordon B. Hinckley, the previous Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

After the cemetery we headed to The Gateway Plaza. This plaza is like a really big outdoor mall. With all kinds of fancy shops as well as some other things, like a children's museum, and a planetarium. We went to the planetarium, and looked at all the cool stuff they had in the lobby. Then we headed over to the actual plaza.

They have one of those areas that squirt water out of the sidewalk. My youngest sister, N, was very excited to get to do that. And Cinderella was too. When we got there I realized I hadn't planned very well. We just figured we would let the kids run through in their clothing. I had brought a dry change of clothes for my kids, and my mom had brought some towels.

Well the plaza was packed. And all the kids were in swim suits. So I decided to look at the rules they had posted and see if they had a rule against street clothing being worn. Well they didn't specify that they needed to have a swim suit. But there was a sign that said all children under the age of 4 (I think) had to have a swim diaper, and rubber pants covering it. And then in big letters it stated that "People who have had diarrhea in the last 2 weeks need to stay out of the pool." Now here is the controversy. Does water shooting out of the sidewalk constitute as a pool?

Both my kids had been sick with diarrhea within the previous week. So do I keep them out? Or let them go in? As we debated what to do, someone pointed out, that the lack of swim diapers was probably a bigger issue. So I thought we could look around and see if there was any place nearby that sold swim diapers.

Then I realized that my husband had the opinion that we should obey all of the signs. The kids had been sick, they couldn't go. I hated to tell them that, because I knew how much some of them were really excited to play in the water. I didn't agree with the sign, and felt like it would be OK. But I could also understand where my husband was coming from.

He pointed out to me, that if our kids had been completely healthy and we let them do this, and some parent let their sick kids play, and our kids got sick, we wouldn't be too happy with that parent, so we shouldn't let our kids play either.

So much to the disappointment of Cinderella and Aunt N, we told them we couldn't do it. We then proceeded to return to Grandma's house, were we set up the kiddy pool I had bought, and a slip and slide, and let them all play in the water there. Unfortunately by that time, there were clouds, and it wasn't as hot. Oh well. You do what you have to do.

After our adventure for the day, everyone was quite wiped out, and ornery, so we decided to forgo miniature golfing, which was on the plan for that night.