Park City

Since Dustin spent most of our time in Idaho working (much to the delight of my also solo sister aka Misery Loves Company Skinner) he decided toactually take some vacation days. Instead of heading back to the heat we opted for nicer weather of the mountains in Park City, Utah. It's also swell that you can get a smoking deal on a ski condo in the middle of the summer.

First we stopped by for lunch and playtime the Brooks. We grabbed Cutler's on our way up and got some cookies at Michelle's recommendation. They were all delicious, but after our taste test party, I have to say the double frosted PB is amazing. You can make them for me anytime using this recipe: Heaven.

 

Luke was mainly obsessed with baby Brighton and my girls were too busy being amazed at the amount of American Girl Doll stuff McKinley owns.

I fell asleep on the drive to Park City only to be awoken by the sobs of children. Our car was flashing warning lights about our battery dying and the battery saver automatically turned off all "excess" power usage including the DVD player and a/c.

We were so blessed that our car made it to the condo to drop us all off and then to the car shop before it died just outside the garage. It ended up being the alternator and they'd need to keep it overnight to get a part up from Salt Lake City.

 

A family of 6 stranded in a new city with no food and nothing to do had me more than stressed out. Dustin took the kids out to walk around the shops and see if he could find anything to eat when he discovered the bus out front was not only free, but also just a 5 minute ride to Main Street. Blessing number 2.  Everyone came back happy and loaded with food.

 

Tuesday we took the bus down to Main Street for breakfast, took a walk and reloaded up for a bus ride out to Olympic Village. The place was surprisingly fun. They have a museum and all that, but they also have zip lines, ropes courses, an alpine slide etc.  Dustin and the girls even did Drop Tower, which is a 477 ft zip line to a 67 foot bungee drop.

There is also a bobsled ride with a professional but none of my kids weighed enough for it. Boo. They also didn't want us to sign them up for the day camp where you learn to ski jump off a slope into a pool. I think the zip lines were the biggest hit for everyone. The least favorite? The ropes course.

I cannot even begin to describe how much I hated this thing. I was described as a beginners course, but it was terrifying. Ellie and I kept looking at each other and whispering, "This is stupid. Why are we doing this?" Sadie was the only one who loved it. The only "fun" part was the zip line down at the end. Never again.

While we were at the Park, our car was fixed and I quickly converted back to a car loving lady. We were having so much fun we had forgotten lunch so we hit up Cafe Rio for dinner, and then a quick trip to the outlets where I may have gone crazy trying to find sneakers to make the entire family happy in the Nike store.

I was exhausted and a little sun burnt, but the kids were still up for some late night swimming.

Wednesday everyone slept in, which gave me time to go for a run up and down all the hills around town. I wanted to die except for the gorgeous scenery. I think I could live in Park City.

We headed down to Provo for the day because we love BYU and no trip to Utah is complete without a stop in the motherland.

First up: bowling!

Next we headed to the Cougar Eat. I tried to convince everyone to eat at a real restaurant but they can't resist the food court appeal. Also I never let me kids eat at Taco Bell and they know there is one up there. I sent them all off with $10 and got myself some mint brownies.

Usually I feel like our family trip to the bookstore is about a 12 on a scale of 1-10 of craziness. I am happy to report this time was only an 8!!! I also thought we showed great restraint in our purchasing, but Dustin assures me that we still provided a year's tuition for our scholarship fund. I cannot say no to anything with a Y on it. Case in point -- Sadie came home with a lovely stocking hat (seen below) when we live in Arizona. When will she ever wear this??

We were all exhausted after the book store so we made one last pit stop for ice cream at the Creamery.

I was so sugared up I couldn't even make it to The Chocolate. Our Sugar Coma put us all into a deep sleep on the ride back to Park City.

I then had to wake everyone up and tell them to run to the condo because we were in the middle of a torrential downpour. Dustin had dropped us off as close as he could get and then was going to swing back around to park the car. When he arrived, he was completely dry. Turns out he had just remembered that there was underground paring.

I blew dry my hair and Dustin ordered Chinese food for the kids before we headed down to Main Street for a date at Bistro 412. In a car.

Our friends, Mike and Rickie, came up from Bountiful to meet us for dessert. We met at our condo and then headed down to Main Street (again) on the bus.

8 kids in Park City was a little bit of a spectacle, but probably more so when half were wearing BYU clothes and the other half in Utah red.

Someone actually stopped Mike on the street and asked how our families managed to get along. We walked around and grabbed more ice cream for dessert. Then we went for a little hike up the canyon (as much as you can call it a hike when everyone is wearing flip flops) and back to the condo to hang out until well past everyone's bed time.

And that was the end of our vacation. The next day we drove 12 hours home to the heat and suitcases full of laundry.