Summer 2013- Part 2

Part 1 of our summer was all about Memorial Day and the 4th of July with Kyle's family. After the 4th, we spent the middle of July and the beginning of August with my family.

July 17-21
My parents were in town for a work conference for my Dad. The spent a good part of their time staying in downtown Salt Lake City. We saw them a little here and a little there. They did come to stay with us for a night or two after the conference.

Kyle and I just love how close we are to the mountains. We have national forest nearly in our backyard! We haven't taken advantage of it as much as we should. One night we chose to picnic at Mueller Park in Bountiful. It was the first time we had been there. And it was just 5 minutes up the street from where we used to live! It was beautiful. We picnicked and then hiked for a little bit. 

Hailey loved it. Her commentary was hilarious. Nonstop chatter. "What a beautiful day!"

After hiking we went to a park and played for a little bit before Papa and Rara had to leave for the airport. Keira swung in a baby swing for the first time. It was pure joy. Definitely a big hit with her.

August 2-8
My brother, Curtis lives in North Carolina. He is a smart boy, going to graduate school. He just finished up his Master's Degree and is now working on his Ph.D. in Food Science. I'm pretty proud of him. He is doing good things.

North Carolina is too far away. I hadn't seen him since we both left Provo, over two years ago. Curtis flew out the beginning of August to visit. His wife, Chelsea wasn't able to make. It really wish she could have come. We were missing her. Next time!

We spent a weekend in Park City with my family and partied. It was so fun! I loved having all of us together. We ate way too much junk food, laughed a lot, and played games all weekend long. 

The condo we stayed in was pretty awesome. I would definitely stay there again! There were three bedrooms and a loft with a pull out bed. Three bathrooms, with two attached bedrooms. A two car garage, a fancy kitchen, and a lakeview from the balcony. Love.

  

 We stayed Friday-Monday. On Saturday, we took the bus from our condo up to the Park City Mountain Resort. The bus in Park City is free, and this way we didn't have to spent 10 minutes getting everyone in and out of the car. My parents have an SUV, so we could all fit in one car, but it was quite the process working around car seats.

We went and rode the alpine coaster and slide again, like we did with Kyle's family over the 4th of July. 

 Kyle left Sunday evening, since he had work on Monday. The rest of us stayed and played a little longer. We went over to the Canyons Resort and rode the gondola. 

We chose to hike around when we got to the top. There is a hike that takes you up to a lake. We wanted to do that. Curtis and Corinne chose to ride the ski lift up and hike back down. I didn't feel too comfortable taking the ski lift with my two wiggly girls, so we started hiking up. We quickly realized it was a bit more than we bargained for and turned around. We went on a small easy nature hike instead.

Remember how much Hailey enjoyed our earlier hike? Ha! This time she was Little Miss Grumpy Pants. She complained the whole time. "I don't want to hike around anymore." Blah, blah, blah... My favorite though went a little like this:

Me: Isn't this so fun?

Hailey: No. It's. Not. (grumpy face)

Me: Hailey, look at the pretty flowers!

Hailey: I hate flowers! (sad grumpy voice)

Really? Who hates flowers? Apparently three-year old girls who are done vacationing.

That evening, my aunt Leslie was kind enough to host a BBQ at her house and invited all of the family who are in Utah, which is no small number. It was so fun to see everyone. And great for Curtis to be able to see so much family all at once, family he may not have otherwise been able to see.

My aunt Valerie is a talented artist. She often brings her face painting supplies when all of my extended family gets together. Hailey got her face painted, and loved it.

My cousin April brought over some sweet bikes they recently acquired from her father-in-law. The bikes were her husband's when he was a kid. It is a called a Swing Bike. There is a spring attached to the back wheel, and when unlocked allows the wheel to swing out away from the bike frame. It was a pretty crazy bike to ride. It took a little getting used to. 

Kyle, of course, loved it and got the hang of it pretty quickly. He rode all over and got a little tricksy with the bike.

Later in the week we drove to Provo to visit BYU, for Curtis' sake. We had to stop by J Dawgs. No trip to BYU is complete without a J Dawg!

I seriously had a blast spending the week with my family, out of our natural habitat. I'm so glad Curtis could come out and visit. It was so fun to see him! I miss him and Chelsea. I wish North Carolina was closer. I have some pretty fantastic siblings! Glad we're family. :)