Park City vacation

We decided to escape the heat and the corona virus and head to Utah this past weekend. I’m so glad we did. We needed this.

The car ride up the girls were distracted by technology and Brendon and I got to play our traditional "Where do you see us in five years" game. It was interesting for the first time we both felt like there are no big changes on the horizon. We have great jobs, a beautiful family, a great house and no complaints. I did tell Brendon I've been enjoying doing more freelance lately and some day I might consider taking a leap and starting my own business. For now, my job is keeping me more than busy!

This dinosaur park in St. George is what park dreams are made of.

We also played the "what if" game. We talked about past relationships and what if we had ended up with them. Where would we be now? We both agreed we could find happiness, but we're so grateful for the happiness we have with each other.

We stopped in St. George for a night and dreamed about life there. We love it there. The trees are beautiful. The weather feels like home. The parks and activities for kids are so perfect.

On our way out of town we stopped at Port of Subs to get some sandwiches for a picnic. The staff there were slow and I wanted to get on the road so when they FINALLY handed me our food to go I was anxious to get out of there. When we got to the park and opened our food I saw they didn’t put ANY toppings on our subs. It was just neat and cheese!

I don’t normally get mad but I was mad about this. I left you girls at the park with Dad and I went back to the store. They took the sandwich, added my toppings, and sent me on my way without a sincere apology or anything to show they were sorry for the trouble. The lack of customer service really bothered me. I wrote an unhappy review online and vented to Brendon.

Of course we had to stop at the St. George Children's Museum. If this were real makeup, I never would have gotten Eisley out of here!

Then we carried on to Park City. It’s beautiful here but not a place I dream of living. It’s not as kid friendly.

Friday was a lazy day. We explored some parks and the trail by our condo. At night we played Uno with the girls. It seems to be our best family game. We all enjoy it and the girls get competitive. While we were playing we ate sugar cookies frosted with white cream cheese frosting and fruit. When Eisley wasn’t looking, Brendon took a bite of her cookie. His bite is half the cookie! Eisley was a good sport about it and got another cookie. Then he did it again. It was hilarious. Later, Brendon noticed that Kaybree’s toothpaste had been left on the table. Watching the girls frost their cookies I could see exactly where his mind was going. Kaybree had no idea what was going on but given Brendon’s earlier pranks she was suspicious. Eventually he convinced the girls to play hide and seek and while they hid he mixed eisley’s frosting with the toothpaste. When she came back to the table she didn’t want her cookie but through our laughter we convinced her to finish it. It took her a moment but once she realized what she was eating she was not happy. We were all dying laughing.

Aspen among the Aspen trees

Aspen LOVED chasing the bunnies

On the 4th of July, we took a train ride in Heber Valley. The train is 121 years old! We rode along a beautiful lake while local musicians played the violin and guitar. It was cute and fun. Kaybree looked bored out of her mind the whole time. Eisley enjoyed getting Dr. Pepper on the train and Aspen loved seeing the musicians and looking out the window.
After the train ride we found a park and let the girls out to play. We were all hungry for lunch but it was only 10:30! Eventually the girls had had enough playing so we decided to go find Brendon’s old family cabin in Midway. As we were packing up the car Brendon tried to start it and... it wouldn’t start. The battery was completely dead.

I went to grab our jumper cables and realized we left them at home! Luckily an older couple in a truck had randomly pulled in next to us and they had cables. We hooked it up and waited. And waited. And waited. It still wouldn’t start.

We recognized even in that moment we were lucky. The park was directly across the street from a car dealership with a service center. We thanked the couple for their time and I was just about to head to the dealership when we decided to try one more time. By some miracle, the van started. Another great miracle, we were just around the corner from an O’Reilley Auto Parts and they did not have special holiday hours. In just a few minutes we got a new battery and were able to continue on our way.

All day, at each new stop we made, we were reminded how lucky we were that the van had stopped working that morning and not that afternoon. We were so fortunate that the problem was only a battery and nothing more serious. We were so fortunate that it happened the day after we got paid and not a day sooner when our bank account was empty (that’s an unusual occurrence for us but it happened). I truly believe there were angels watching over us.

At the end of the day we went back to Midway and parked near a dairy to wait for a fireworks show. We didn’t really have to wait. All around us there were fireworks being shot off. We could look down the hill and see a dozen firework shows down below too. We sat there, inside the van, wearing sweaters, breathing in fresh air mixed with a hint of smoke and watched hundreds of fireworks go off. It was perfect. I hope you girls always remember that. Unfortunately—Eisley has already said her favorite part of the trip was me yelling at the sub people. 🤦‍♀️ For the record—I never yelled. If I had maybe they would have given me a free cookie or a refund.

Little hippo baby

Eisley loved the hot tub. I turned the heat down so it was more like a warm pool. You two went in it every night while Brendon and Kaybree went for bike rides.