3rd Annual Family Vacation- August 2011

We had a wonderful and relaxing family vacation! Thursday night we picked up some pizzas and ate our dinner on the gorgeous drive up to Park City. It was a stunning drive through the canyon, the children exclaiming, "Look at the ocean!", which was really a beautiful lake. It was a wonderful start to our fun-filled weekend.

We checked into our hotel and the children immediately begged to go swimming. We took them down and they had a blast! Bedtime was a little tricky with Gabe having to go to bed early, as he was just utterly exhausted. We'd hoped he'd sleep on the hour long drive up to Park City, but no such luck, so we all headed to bed extra early, trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. With Amalie snoring because of a stuffy nose, and yelling out things such as "Noah, stop it!" in her sleep, Brad and I felt more than a little exhausted the next morning.

We headed down for our breakfast buffet. If satisfaction were measured in the messiness of our booth, I'd say we were the most satisfied customers there! (hee hee) We had fun exploring the hotel weight room and game room. After we checked out, we drove over to the Utah Olympic Park-where some of the winter events were held at the Winter Olympics in 2002. It was pretty darn cool.
We got to watch a class learning how to do cool ski jumps, and end up in the pool below. Very cool.
They also have a neat museum with some cool stuff. We loved posing in the bob sled. (Jamaica, we have a bob sled, team!)


Up there was the bob sled run. Apparently you can actually take a ride in one, at 70 mph for only $69. Needless to say, we passed on that! But it would be fun someday, maybe when we are debt free!


We stopped to get lunch at a bagel place and on the way there, Gabe promptly fell asleep. We ate our bagels on our drive to Salt Lake where I had gotten a Priceline deal for a Marriott hotel. We were pleasantly surprised- it was just beautiful. I had requested that we get the highest room possible, so they put us on the 6th floor (there were 7 floors in all). The kids were thrilled, as I knew they would be. We got to ride in a cool glass elevator every time we went somewhere. Which was a lot!
Brad stayed on the sixth floor to take this shot of us on the first floor. We really enjoyed exploring the hotel and sitting on each and every couch and chair. I love the children's excitement and vigor for life and new experiences. I loved being with the children and Brad away from my daily duties where I could just take time to enjoy and savor them fully and not be distracted by the house and the laundry and the computer and my long to-do list. So heavenly.
Crazy light fixture in the hotel.

We didn't do much other than swim in the pool. It's fun that to our kids, the best part of the vacation is swimming in the pool and staying in the hotel. They were just happy to do that and nothing else! Although, we did get a little fun outing when I took Amalie and Noah on the hotel shuttle to pick up a pizza from the Pie Pizzeria which I'd heard was supposed to be the best pizza in Salt Lake. So we had fun traveling over with a shuttle full of sorority girls. It was funny, the girls were just dying over Amalie. The pizza was good and we tried to save some for the next day, by putting it in a bag in the ice bucket, but it ended up a little soggy. Blech.
We had a much better night's sleep, only waking up six or so times in the night instead of twenty something. But the funniest time was when Amalie yelled sternly in her sleep, "Gabe! Shut the fridge!" Her dreams must be very mundane. (Hee Hee) I hadn't known that she talked in her sleep, but apparently she does, I am so grateful Noah and Gabe seem to sleep through it every night. Thank goodness! After coming home and sleeping in my own bed, I was extremely grateful that the children have a separate room for us. Our house felt ginormous compared to the 400 square foot hotel room! Definitely a fun lesson in gratitude!

As we tried to decide where to take the kids in Salt Lake before we left, knowing we had limited time before Gabe's transformation into Beast boy, the kids kept begging to go swimming. So we did, which nixed any other activities. But the kids were purely happy.








After we checked out of our lovely hotel, we stopped by a store Brad had wanted to check out, let Gabe nap while the others shopped and then had lunch at Cafe Rio. It was a fabulous vacation. It was a huge blessing that we were able to stay under our vacation budget since we are working so hard to get out of debt. What a blessing. I love family vacations. I felt relaxed and happy for days afterward. Definitely a worthwhile investment.