Park City Getaway

We have made it a tradition of sorts to take a weekend away from the kids in August or September.  By tradition I mean that we’ve done it 3 out of the last 4 years I think…anyway.  This year was a blast and I almost didn’t want to come home.  Why is it that life can’t be more like vacation?  You know, the freedom, no worrying, just lots of fun and none of the hard stuff?  I could totally go for that. 

We stayed at the Canyons Silverado Lodge.  I decided to stay there because they had a deal where you got some money to spend at their resort for each night you spent there that made it comparable to the cost of the lesser hotels we usually stay in.  Everyone there was super nice, friendly, and helpful. Here are some terrible pics of our room.  It was cozy and nice.  I loved the deep jetted tub…I’m not usually a bath taker, more of a shower girl, but if I had a tub like that I think I might change my mind. 

When we got there we were really hungry.  We figured we’d eat at the resort since we had the cash card for the resort that they gave us.  Jason was thinking we’d get a couple meals out of it…well, for some reason there was only one of their restaurants open that night.  It’s called “The Farm” it sounded homey and laid back.  It was a nice restaurant, but it was MUCH more expensive than we expected from a place called the Farm.  Let’s just say that we were really glad we had a gift card to pay for it otherwise I may have had a heart attack.  The food was really good, and before we went in I planned on taking some pictures, but I was too chicken.  At one point Jason told me that I seemed really uncomfortable.  I have to admit that I felt a little strange being in such an expensive place in my capris and t-shirt.  It was quite the experience. 

After dinner we headed to Main street…thankfully it had stopped raining.  I think the rain kept people away though because Main street is usually bustling on Friday night, but there was hardly anyone out.  We got a treat at Rocky Mountain chocolate factory and then browsed in the bookstore that is right next to it.  I found some good books to add to my to-read list. 

Party animals that we are we stayed up reading/on the computer until we couldn’t stay awake any longer.  Then we slept in our luxuriously large bed—I mean I didn’t even know Jason was in there with me!  It made me wonder aloud why we still have just a queen sized bed at home ‘cause sometimes a girl just wants to stretch out a bit while she sleeps!

Saturday we used what was left on our card to purchase gondola tickets.  This part was really fun.  I loved the views on the ride up and down.  I wish I was a better photographer to capture them.  We really need to work on our self-portrait skills—this is in the gondola on our way up the mountain…not sure what Jason is doing here. 

View from the gondolaWhen we got to the place that looked like the top when we were getting on we saw this…it kinda freaked Jason out a little (he’s slightly afraid of heights)  I totally loved it.  Once we got to the real top we headed out on a hike.  We decided to hike the Tombstone trail…now that I type that it seems a little odd to name a trail for something that you bury people in, but thankfully I didn’t think of it at the time.  The hike was beautiful and followed a stream for part of the way.  We had a good time enjoying the beauty all around us. 

Here we are at the top of the trail.  It ended at the top of one of the ski lifts…so we saw lots of the ski runs on our way up the trail too.  The view from the top.  Can you see the houses down there?9000 ft is pretty high…I totally could have kept hiking if we had been better prepared…but we were getting hungry so we headed back down the trail.  That’s what the outside of the gondolas looked like.  We saw lots of mountain bikers up at the top.  It made me want to try out mountain biking one of these days.  I think I might be a little too chicken for it, but I won’t know for sure unless I try, right? 

After lunch Jason wanted to read for awhile so I decided to head over to the outlets to see what I could find.  I had a good time and bought a couple things, but not too much.  Shopping is way more fun when you have friends with you to help you find things you wouldn’t normally consider and to give you opinions.  I had to settle for the opinion of strangers in the dressing room when I needed help deciding on something. 

After I got back we headed to dinner at Main Street Pizza and Noodle.  I had to take a picture of this moose in his jeans and cowboy boots on the way.  The pizza we got was really good-I’ve forgotten the name-maybe it was the Santa Fe?  We saved half for breakfast because we couldn’t finish it. 

After we ate we headed to the movie theater.  I would have preferred to go see The Fantasticks at the theater on Main street, but I had chosen everything else and Jason REALLY wanted to see this movie.  Honestly, I had no desire to see it, but I went anyway because I love him and he knows exactly how to get me to do things.  He loved it…I DIDN’T.  I will leave it at that.  I realized when we got back from the movie that I hadn’t even taken any pictures of us while we were out.  (I even had my hair done all cute too)  So, I attempted some self-portraits again.  The one above is the best one…and it just isn’t that good (how do people get good ones??).  After several more failed attempts we decided to just give up…see below.  Thanks for an awesome fun weekend!  It was super nice to be able to forget all our worries and just remember how much we like to be together.  Love you tons, Jason! Back to reality…I was happy to see some Fall colors in the canyon on our drive home.  Hopefully they will last a little longer this year and we can enjoy them more before we are snowed in for several months.

A big thank you goes out to my in-laws.  They are the best!  They took care of our kids while we were away and they did a great job.  We are so lucky to have them close to us—thanks for being awesome!   

First day of Preschool

I can’t believe how this day has come so soon!  Liam was alternately excited and nervous about starting school.  But on the first day he was excited.  Thankfully he was happy to let me snap a few pictures. 

He loves his Handy Manny backpack.  Big thanks to Grandma for that one.  This is right before we left—a rare capture of his true cute smile.

In front of the preschool—he was getting tired of pictures now so the rest I took without him knowing. 

Hanging his backpack up.Playing with the grill.  This is when Jason asked me if I was ready to leave and it made me cry thinking about leaving him…I was doing really good until then.  Three cheers for a successful first day!

Thankfully he seems to enjoy preschool and is making new friends each day.  He did tell me that his teachers made him sit down though.  I thought that was pretty funny.  He really doesn’t like sitting down much. 

Labor Day Fun

This year our Labor day weekend was full of fun with a little bit of work.  Saturday after we got all of our usual weekend work done we headed to the pool for one last dip.  It was not crowded at all so that made it nicer for me since I have a hard time keeping track of kids when the pool is too crowded.  Liam had a blast going down the slide all by himself with a life jacket on.  He went over and over and over.  If they would have let him he would have jumped off the diving board too.  Emily and Jason had lots of fun too playing hide and seek in the pool with their friends and who knows what other games they played.  We all came home tired and a little sunburned too. 

Monday was the real fun though.  Actually we spent the morning cleaning Jason Jr’s room and moving his furniture around.  Then we headed to Orem to go mini-golfing.  It was lots of fun. 

This is probably the only time Liam actually tried to use his golf club to hit the ball.  The rest of the time he was seeing what other creative uses he could find for it Jason is serious about the game.

His Dad was so serious he had to try to cheat to do better…Mostly Liam ran, climbed, and jumped to his hearts content.  I thought this hole was really cool.  If you could get your ball into that little stream it would roll down by the cup thingy (can you tell I’m a big golfer?)

I was trying to get a picture with Jason and he was being sillyThen once he gave me a good smile I had joined him in being silly.  I love his smile!All done golfing and we were HUNGRY!

We all wanted to go to the BYU creamery for dinner, but it was so busy there the wait was longer than we had time for so we headed to SLAB pizza for dinner.  I meant to take pictures of the pizza, but we were all so hungry we just dug in.  My review of the pizza is that it is good, but the crust is too chewy for my liking (thank you messed up jaw for that one).  I’d like to try some of their more original topping combinations though. 

Our final bit of fun was a Beatles Tribute band concert.  We went to one last year that benefited the Red Cross so it was a lot smaller audience—I think I liked it a little better.  Right after we got to the Scera outdoor stage it started sprinkling—and we still had 45 minutes until the concert started.  Thankfully the rain stopped just in time for them to perform.waiting… Jason bought an official shirt while we waited. 

Em and I hunkered down attempting to stay dry.  By the time the Beatles took the stage Liam was tired and trying to go to sleep.  Daddy convinced him to go down by the stage and dance and that really perked him up.  I couldn’t pass up the photo op.

Dancing with DaddyHe wanted to see the stage so Daddy put him on his shoulders.  I decided to join in the dancing fun. 

Singing together.I finally went up and dragged the teenagers down to join us.  They were either too cool or too embarrassed to come on their own.  Emily was especially embarrassed of our shenanigans, but we made her join us anyway!

Finally we were all worn out so we enjoyed the rest of the concert from our blanket in the grass.  It was tons of fun.  I love when everyone is happy.

Did you fill your Labor day with fun or work?