We spent Monday, Thursday and Friday at Matt's parent's home in Provo and the other two days in Park City. I haven't really been able to spend any significant amount of time in Park City, so it was fun to get to know it a little. We stayed at the Marriott mountainside resort in a two villas which were supposed to be right next to each other, but ended up being down the hall from each other instead (a hassle in and of itself). But the resort was nice and had a great pool and a wonderful playroom for kids. They even had craft time where the children could paint clay figurines - how proud am I that Ellie chose to paint an elephant? (answer: so proud).
The thing to do, apparently, in Park City is to ride the Alpine Slide and Alpine Roller Coaster. While it was fun enough, it was pretty pricey considering what you get. Matt, Ellie and I rode the slide once and Matt and I rode the coaster once and we spent $52. I mean, seriously? Are you kidding me? But clearly, they can get away with it, because people were willing to pay it. And on top of that I seriously questioned the structural integrity of the coaster. I LOVE roller coaster rides, I am the first person to go on them whenever I can, there isn't a roller coaster in any amusement park that I've been to that I haven't been on. But I tell you, I have never really worried that I might actually be injured. On this coaster, I feared for my safety. It just seemed poor construction and well, ready to break at any moment. But we survived to tell that tale and now we never need to make the mistake of going on it again.
I've already talked about our hike to Timp Cave.
The reunion ended Friday and the weekend was packed trying to see more family. We made a stop at Matt's Grandma's house in Layton. She is the only living grandparent we have between the two of us, so she is a gem. Ellie and Annie were both well behaved. I worried that Ellie would have a hard time opening up, but once Grandma pulled out her cinnamon flavored graham crackers, Ellie was her instant best friend.
We caught a quick lunch* with my brother Steve and his family including our newest niece, Erneke. She is a super cute baby. Joni, my sister-in-law, was a real trooper to let us visit merely 10 days after her delivery. Ellie had a blast playing with her cousin Aydon at the big play area in Carl's Jr, and I realized that we really don't have a lot of those play areas at fast food places in our neighborhood (I can't think of one). Boy, are we missing out!
And on Sunday we continued a Steven's family tradition of cousin dinner with my cousins from my mom's side of the family. When I was at BYU, there were tons of us going to school at the same time and we had cousin dinner every week. It was one of my favorite traditions while in school. I love my cousins. Of course, my sister, Emily and her family were there and it was wonderful to see her twins again. They've grown so much. My brother, Doug, was in town too, later in the week and we saw him as well. I got to see 3 of my 5 siblings - not bad. And we thought this trip was for Matt's family reunion.
The next week we went to Education Week at BYU. That could be a post all in of itself, but I am running out of gas writing this. To sum up - the classes were great. I came out from it with a giant list in my head of things I want to do to improve my life in many ways - spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially, etc. I got some great ideas and a lot of motivation. We even ran into my aunt, Laurie and cousins, Jackie and Bethany. I am so grateful to my in-laws who willingly watched the girls all day (8am to 7pm bedtime) without complaint and with much love. Ellie is constantly talking about what she did with Grandma and Grandpa Astle. I used to think that I was the coolest person Ellie knew. It's sad to realize she is getting to the point where I am not the most important person in her life and in fact I'll never be as cool as Grandma and Granpa.
We made it home with little excitment after 13 days of vacation and easily settled back into our routine. While, as I predicted, it wasn't the most relaxing vacation, it was a great vacation and we had a wonderful time. We saw lots of family and wish we could've seen some friends. But there really wasn't much extra time. Next time around! Now I am busy planning our next year of getaways since this one is past. I find that I really love to plan vacations. I should do that all the time. I don't know why I worked in politics, tourism is my true calling. But I need a bigger budget to do it right. Oh well. Til the next trip, my faithful reader, you'll have to just read the normal drugery of posts.
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