President's Council started on Tuesday, June 26 so we arrived on Monday from our trip to Yellowstone/Grand Teton's. This year we stayed in a resort called the "Stein Eriksen Lodge." It was about five minutes away from where we stayed two years ago. I'm not sure why they decided to stay at a different place but we were glad for it. This time we had a full kitchen and washer and dryer in our suite which is WAY better when you have kids. Last time I couldn't even make a simple cup of tea! The grounds weren't quite as spacious and pretty and the pool area was much smaller but we liked the trade-off.
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| Two years ago we just had two rooms joined together. This time we had a spacious living area and kitchen in addition to two bedrooms. Also, you can't see it in this picture but there was a Murphy bed next to the dining room table that the boys ended up using. It worked out perfectly. |
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| The girls' room. The beds were pretty high up and I was worried about Colby falling out so the Murphy bed was a great alternative. |
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| Our view. It's actually quite pretty beyond those trees but hard to see in the pictures. At night, all these trees had white lights on them twinkling which I LOVED so much. |
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| This was fun to have on our deck! |
Duncan had meetings in the morning on Tuesday and then in the afternoon we took a shuttle a short distance to Park City Mountain Resort were AHS was kind enough to provide us tickets. With our youngest member being four (almost five) it's nice that we all can do most of the activities.
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| Alpine slide |
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| Alpine coaster. You take a slow ride (seen here) up to the top and then come down really fast. It is really, really fun. A real rush. It puts the alpine slide to shame! |
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| There was a Colby size ropes course. |
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| Right after the kids had waited about 20-30 minutes (the longest wait for anything) to do this, Brady got in position to start and they lost power! Fortunately after about 10-15 minutes they got it back. But it was a long wait in the searing heat. It was an exceedingly hot day with no shade (even for a Floridian). |
Duncan had to go to meetings on Wednesday morning but once again, we had free time in the afternoon. This time AHS was sponsoring us to go to a place called Rendevous Ranch, about a 40 minute drive from the hotel. AHS had rented the place out and the place included horse back riding, archery, ATV's, fly fishing, among other things.
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| Brady trying out the bow. This was always one of my favorite things at summer camp. |
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| Aubree and her friend Becca. It's just a short ride of about 30-40 minutes but it definitely wetted the kids appetite for horseback riding. |
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| Duncan driving the ATV |
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| It seated four so he took Calleigh, Aubree, and Brady |
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| Colby and I were very happy to go in the the ATV in front of Duncan which was the first one. You didn't get all dirty in this one because no one was whipping up dust in front of you. |
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| Hard to tell but the kids are filthy! |
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| Can you see Duncan's face? |
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| You had to be seven to do the horses so Colby and I went on a wagon ride with Amy and Addi while we waited for them. |
The ranch was lots of fun. The only downside is that we left Aubree's camera in the bathroom. I had moved it off the counter for her onto a safer surface and then we both forget to retrieve it. Sadly, we never got it back. The stinky thing is that we had spent time the night before trying to track down a charger for it at several stores.
On Thursday after Duncan's meetings, we took the short drive to Olympic Park. This was where we had such a blast two years ago and where we had to put rocks in Brady's pockets because the scale was off and said Brady weighed 31 pounds even though we knew it was 35. Fortunately, we didn't have the same issue with Colby who weighed in at 37 pounds(you have to be 35 to do the ropes course). I don't have a picture of it but I got to one of the zip lines which was just awesome (although I did lose my visor). We didn't try any of those last time. Another thing the kids (and Duncan) did that I don't have a picture of, was a a new thing they have called an airbag jump. You stand on a platform and jump off into a giant airbag. They had three heights of 5, 10, and 15 feet. Brady had absolutely no fear and was the first of the kids to even do the 10 foot one. The girls ended up going on to the 15 foot along with Duncan but I think it got to be a little too much for Brady at that height. I determined that it was a little too scary for me at any height!
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| All smiles here but unfortunately Colby made it about 3/4 of the way through and decided he couldn't get past one part. They had to get an employee to bring a ladder to rescue him. There were many tears involved. I don't know if this means Brady was braver or what (Brady made it the whole way when he was five - - although to be fair, Colby wasn't five yet). |
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| Brady did some tubing. |
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| Aubree was the only one who wanted to do the bigger ropes course. Both she and Calleigh did it last time but for whatever reason, Calleigh didn't want to this time. |
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| They provided us an amazing outdoor supper and then we watched an airshow put on by some previous and hopefully future Olympians. The jumps they did were amazing. They would land in a giant pool of water after their jumps. |
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| The guys (and one girl) in red were the jumpers. |
Friday was a free day for Duncan so we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. In the morning, we went into downtown Park City to have breakfast and walk around the main drag which is very picturesque. In the afternoon, we found a place for Duncan and the kids to go horseback riding again since they had loved it so much. Most places you had to be eight to ride but fortunately I finally found one that would take seven year olds. Brady didn't want to miss it! I was happy that Colby was too young because the last time I went horseback riding it was possibly the most uncomfortable thing I've experienced.
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| Breakfast at "The Bridge" |
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| The main street of Park City which has lots of shops. |
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| Calleigh on Blondie |
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| Aubree on Billy |
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| Brady on Saige |
After our ride, we went back to our favorite restaurant in Park City which is called the Windy Ridge Cafe. Their food is so delicious with lots of vegetarian options.
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| Aubree with a giant stack of onion rings the first time we went. |
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| Our second time. |
On Sabbath, Duncan and I were part of a group in charge of the kids program which took place while the adults were in Sabbath School/church. I had planned out a scavenger hunt for the grounds of the resort which seemed to go very well. We also had a petting zoo and a story.
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| Petting zoo rabbit |
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| Mingling before the scavenger hunt. |
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| Duncan took these guys on a hike with the Reeveses on Sabbath afternoon like last time. Colby and I stayed behind since I thought it would be a little too much for him (and who are we kidding...and me!) |
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| Utah is such a beautiful place. |
Our flight out wasn't until Monday so we had the day Sunday to do as we wished. We checked out of our hotel and then drove about an hour into Salt Lake City. Using our Science Center passes, we were able to get in for free to a museum called "The Leonardo." It wasn't huge but we really enjoyed it and it was mostly empty. As we were quickly reminded, Sunday is a quiet day in Utah. Some restaurants and stores are completely closed including the giant mall in Salt Lake City.
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| The kids loved this airplane cockpit. It had a million switches and buttons in the inside and they would have probably stayed in here for an hour if we didn't want to move on. There were basically no other kids around so they had it to themselves. |
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| Argh!!!! |
After we finished supper, at IHOP because we had to leave another place that didn't work out (long story), it was only about 5:00 pm and we were at a loss of what to do. So many thing weren't open. We ended up at Target and a few other stores and then checked into our hotel next to the airport by about 7:30 pm.
Next stop: Boston!
