Family Vacation 2011

For 2011, we decided to take a snowy vacation instead of a warm, tropical-like vacation and headed to Park City, Utah with four of our bestest friends (the other 2 bestest decided they would stay home - shucks).

Utah is such a beautiful state - I honestly did not think it would be so grand. The mountains were completely different from Colorado and everything was a little more laid back.



We left on Sunday January 9, 2011 and embarked on a very long plane ride to Las Vegas, Nevada. We thought it was suppose to be a 3.5 hour flight, but ended up being a 4.5 hour flight because we forgot Nevada was on Pacific time - oops! We didn't gamble in the airport because we were too busy running around with our Butter McBean, but we did see all the fancy hotels from a distance. We had no idea they were so close to the airport! The second flight was much shorter (thank you Lord). By 4:00pm Mountain time we had gotten our rental car, grocery shopped and made it to our condo. Everything was lovely and very comfortable. We fortunately got  a really nice condo off of an auction and shared it with two of our friends.

Let's get this party started!

Monday - Soren and I spent the day together with on of our friends while Daddy hit the slopes.

Would you like a spot of tea?

It was a good day, but we tried to stay low key considering the time change and the very long day before so we did a little window shopping and took a nice drive to get a sense of the area. Soren missed his formal nap, but got about a 45-minute nap in the car. Not ideal, but we were working with what we could.



Daddy was done skiing when we got back and gave us the unfortunate news that he rotated his knee on his last run thus putting him out the game for the rest of the week - not the kind of the thing you want to happen on the first day of your ski vacation. But we made the very best of it and got in a lot of family time.



Note the ice pack

Tuesday - I spent the morning with the family doing a little shopping at the famed outlet mall, but then headed back to meet up with my girlfriends for my first spa experience. The spa was nice, but I think I learned it was not my favorite thing to do. I feel like I spent more time trying to remind myself to relax. Oh well, I think I might try the facial next time. After our spa journey my friends and I had lunch and did a little more shopping - okay, a lot more shopping, but we were having a good time. The rest of the evening was spent strolling Main Street with a stop at the Java Cow for a little tiramisu (only the mascarpone cheese for Soren though).

Yummy....and brown teeth!

More NOW!!!

What? Do I have something on my face?

Wednesday - What a day this wa!. We got our acts together early and headed out to breakfast at The Eating Establishment - D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S! I got eggs scrambled with smoked salmon and onions. Daddy got country fried steak with tomatoes and Soren enjoyed his favorite - pancakes. After breakfast we took a road trip to Salt Lake City to see the mormon temple and the Great Salt Lake (the world's second saltest body of water after the Dead Sea). The mormon temple/compound was very interesting to say the least, but I am glad we went.



Zane discovered Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. You get there via a causeway and then drive around the island in search of wildlife (and their by products). We saw 3 herds of buffalo, 2 herds of antelope, one coyote in hunting mode (we seriously thought it was a fox at first - we need to beef up on our wildlife identification skills), and several piles of by product. It was a lot of fun and Soren magically stayed awake the entire time!



Great Salt Lake



Byproducts

Beautiful Buffalo

Great Salt Lake  - Frozen of course.

Is it a fox? Is it a plane?

No, it's a coyote, silly!

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and having a chaotic relaxing dinner with friends.

Thursday - A little more sightseeing of the area and more shopping in between.

Seriously!

We found a great lunch stop. Can you believe there are places similar to Panera that cost A LOT less. We also found a very cute toy store. Our last evening was low key. I found a couple shirts for Soren and I and we made a pit stop at a chocolate sipping bar. We got a small cup of 100% cacoa with vanilla bean - YUMMO. Not sugary, just chocolately - so much chocolate that your teeth look smooth and brown.

Friday - man, o'man - we made it home. We did really well considering we had to return the rental car, move our luggage to our designated terminal at the airport (all the way at the end), check all four of our bags (one regular suitcase, one small suitcase, one heavy ski bag, and one bulky car seat bag), go through security (thank you family lines), endure one plane ride to Denver from Salt Lake City, endure another long plane ride to Chicago and then wait in the plane while the other passengers boarded, and then finally arrive in Columbus, collect our bags and get home. All in all this last day was exhausting, but everyone did VERY well. Praise the Lord.

Park City, Utah is a place I would definitely visit again. It is beautiful, charming, and fun. It was so nice to have a break from the everyday, but it was nice to come back home too.

Family picture in the snow (it needs a little cropping, but a picture nonetheless!)