Utah (Part 2)

Not Moab.

Still in Moab...

Sunday morning was our Hummer adventure.  Amy and I had been talking before the trip about what to do and she (or Karis) had come up with going on a 2-hour Hummer tour.  Sounded benign enough.  We did see a video preview where the Hummer appears to be on two wheels as it goes down some rocks but we figured, hey, we will just tell them we have kids and we don't want to be doing stuff like that.  Easy peasy. Our tour was at 8:30 so it was another early morning.  There were 17 of us in total and since the Hummers can seat 12 people, the Z's (since they were the only family with five people) went in the first Hummer with some other random people and then the rest of us were in the second Hummer. Our tour guide, Josh, introduced himself by saying that this was indeed an "adventure" so there could be times when we were doing exciting things.  I was curious if the kids would get scared.  Turns out...it was just me!

Waiting patiently for all the paperwork to get completed.  You know, the paperwork that basically says if they kill us, they aren't responsible.

He drove us a few miles out of town and then began the off road stuff.  We immediately climbed this rock formation and it was quickly evident that we were driving on a small strip of "flat" rock with nothing but drop offs on both sides...maybe 75 to 100 feet down?  I tried not to look while hoping fervently that this wasn't what the whole trip would be like.  The kids were in the front row and they were completely unfazed. Josh pointed out that although this was a small strip, it was a two way road and if another vehicle came from the other direction, we would have to pass each other.  And yes, we would be coming back this way.  Thankfully no other vehicle came by but then I had the rest of the trip to think about what if one did while we were leaving?

May be hard to tell but you can clearly see the side drops off there on the right and the left is the same.

There were some other moments the rest of the trip but nothing too crazy.  We were never so close to an edge as at the beginning.  Indeed, it was pretty fun and I loved watching the kids have such a good time.  But still, that ledge at the end was weighing on my mind...

Colby raising his hands as we go down a hill. 

Checking out some dinosaur tracks.

Our guide, Josh.  He reminded me of Bruce MacDougall.

Yup, this is us. I wasn't phased by this point. 

The guy sitting in the back row of the Z's Hummer sent me some pictures he took of us.  They were really great! 

Our whole group.

The Z's Hummer led the way for the first half of the trip and then we led the second half.  That meant we were first up the hill on that scary portion that marked the end of the trail. We got to the top and I held my breathe, hoping I wouldn't see another vehicle up there.  And then...coming right for us were THREE Jeeps.  My heart was in my throat as Josh started backing up very slowly as he tried to pull over to the side.  Ron made a video of it and you can hear me saying, "Just let me out right now."  The only thing that saved my sanity is that I was sitting on the inside rather than the outside so I couldn't actually see how close we were to the edge.  But it had to be really, really close.  I honestly have no idea how another Hummer would have passed since they are even wider.  As the Jeeps passed us, I noticed that one of the drivers was a woman who had a man (her husband?) in the passenger seat.  I couldn't help but think to myself that never in a gazillion years would Duncan ever be a passenger while I drove in such a precarious situation nor would I want to be the driver, of course! Anyway, we all made it back safe and sound and I was glad (I think?) that we did it because the kids had such a blast but I was scared out of my mind for about 120 seconds.

So crazy but Jake actually slept through the scary incident at the end. Lucky!

After our Hummer tour, we all headed over to a dinosaur museum which also had dinosaur replicas outside.  Aubree and Brady were going through a dinosaur phase at the moment so I thought it would be cool.  Well, not cool at all considering that you are outside in 100+ degree weather.  Some of it was indoors which included a movie about the beginning of time which we basically disagreed with completely.  Not sure why we even went and saw it but I suppose we didn't totally expect that.  Plus, at least we were inside!  In the end, Duncan and I concurred that it probably wasn't worth the money ($60 for the family).

Aubree and Kaleb were good buddies throughout the trip.

Getting ready for the movie. 

Sort of looks like giant dinosaurs were following us. You could walk around this road looking at all the life size (?) replicas of dinosaurs.  Did I mention it was a little warm?

Following lunch, it on was on to Arches National Park.  Arches is known for its...arches. Arches are neat to see but after seeing all the beautiful panoramic views at Canyonlands the day before, Arches wasn't quite as exciting.  The kids had had a busy day and the boys, particularly Brady (who had to walk as opposed to Colby who was on Duncan's back), were fading fast so we ended up spending less than two hours at the park.  We at least got to see Balanced Rock and then the famous Delicate Arch (from a distance) which is on the Utah state quarter.  The girls had picked up a Junior Ranger book when we came into the park and they finished some activities to get their Junior Ranger badge so we did feel like we accomplished something.

Balanced Rock.  As you may have guessed.

Delicate Arch is way, way, way, back there in the distance. 

Here's proof. 

Being sworn in as a Junior Ranger.

Now wearing their badges.

We picked one of these up and now we are itching to get to as many national parks as we can so we can get our book stamped.

Got in some swimming and the hot tub later in the evening.  Once the bubbles shut off on the hot tub we were a little worried about the color of the water.  Thankfully no one has gotten sick!

Monday morning we checked out of our rental and met up with everyone for a late breakfast, did a little window shopping and then it was time to hit the road for the four hour drive to Park City.  I was reading a book and wasn't paying attention to the drive but about 1.5 hours in, Duncan realized that he had missed a turn which added about an hour on to our drive.  I honestly didn't care because everyone was happy but Duncan wasn't pleased with himself.  As we got closer to our destination, I put the book away so I could enjoy the amazing scenery which was really quite something to behold. The houses there, many on the sides and tops of mountains - - just wow! Money, money, money.  Our hotel, the Montage Deer Valley, was itself in the side of a ski mountain.

Monday morning breakfast.

The hotel was very, very nice and nothing that we would have stayed in on our own, to say the least.  We were able to get two adjoining rooms with a king in one room and two doubles in the other.  This worked out nicely because Ron and Elaine stayed with us on Monday and Tuesday nights and were able to take the room with the king.  We are quite adept at staying in one room so it worked out just fine.  The hotel was very posh but unfortunately, it was so posh that they didn't have an in-room coffee maker (also heats water) which was bad news for Elaine and me.  We are accustomed to having our morning, afternoon, and evening tea and that was in serious jeopardy with this set up.  Fortunately, I was able to get my cup in the morning and some afternoons when we had group meals but Elaine was not part of that so she went without some of the time.  On the second day, she was so desperate that she went to a restaurant in the hotel that wasn't even open yet, put on her thickest British accent, and they "gave" her two cups of tea.  I use "gave" very lightly because they charged her $17 for two cups of tea.  That did include the tip though.  Ha!

This was on the wall when we first checked into our room.  MDV stands for Montage Deer Valley.

This was also there for the kids.  Paintbox is the kids activity group.

View down from our room.

The view up. 

The kids each got a free stuffed animal in the lobby as soon as we walked in.  A nice greeting!

The kids loved the huge tub!

And bathrobes just their size.

Very peaceful and relaxing.  Not that I actually sat there peacefully relaxing. 

The boys chilling one morning.

When we arrived, we quickly realized that it was valet parking only and of course, there were bellman to take your bags to your room.  We tipped the bellman that loaded our stuff from the van to the cart and then tipped the bellman who brought the stuff to the room.  Then we realized we needed to tip the guy who brought our car around from valet for us so we could leave and go get supper.  Only problem was that we had a measly $1 left between the two of us.  Clearly I had not been thinking ahead about needing cash for the tips. I told Duncan to just explain to the guy that we would bring cash back with us after we ate and that we were really sorry but we would make it up to him.  So Duncan gets his name, Cord, and humbly apologizes for our ineptness with a proper tip but gives him the $1 at least.  A bit later, we meet up with some of Duncan's colleagues at the Loco Lizard (really good Mexican food) and we got around to discussing the tip situation and one of the wives says "Oh, didn't you see the message?  They said we didn't need to leave tips because it's all part of the contract they negotiated with the hotel."  AHS created this app that you could go on to get news, post pictures, see the agenda, etc for the conference.  It's looks very similar to Facebook actually.  Someone posted that tip info in the newsfeed so unless you happened to just be scrolling through the feed (which we had not been doing) you would totally have missed the announcement.  I was a little perturbed by this methodology but very grateful that we didn't need to worry about all the cash we would need on hand.  On the way back to the hotel I said to Duncan, "I guess we need to track down Cord and ask for our dollar back!"

The reason it's called Deer Valley.  Sadly we also saw several deceased ones, killed by motorists.

Duncan was in meetings for half days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but we had no problems entertaining ourselves in his absence.  Tuesday afternoon they had a kids' program and then also on Tuesday night while the adults were at the Awards Banquet (employees got plaques and such for hitting significant years of service at AHS) which took place on the "Grand Lawn" under a tent.  Originally I thought I would be skipping this because children need to be at least four to be dropped off at the kids' program but voila!  Ron and Elaine were there and were happy to hang out with Colby at the evening kid events.  It worked out perfectly.  Some time on Tuesday, Duncan was alerted that they had inadvertently forgotten to invite him to a Wednesday evening dinner out on the town for new leaders in the Florida Division.  Duncan told them that he had a two-year old that would be "under age" but he was told (by AHS) that it would be fine.  Once again, here was another event that I didn't know I would be attending.  I had brought a few extra things but I wore something I wouldn't necessarily have donned had I known in advance where I was going.  Oh well!  At any rate, we dropped all four kids off the hotel's kid club and all seemed to be in order.  We had a little extra time before meeting at the restaurant so we headed to Walgreens to get a few odds and ends.  It was probably 30 minutes after we had dropped the kids off and I get a call on my phone and it showed a number from Provo, Utah.  Of course, I immediately guessed it was something to do with the kids and I was slightly fearful as I answered the call. A lady answered and said "Hi, this is (I don't remember).  I am SO sorry I'm late but I'm here in the lobby.  I got stuck in bad traffic."  I finally figured out that she was the special baby-sitter that they had gotten for Colby which was separate from the hotel's kids program.  She said she usually would stay with the kid in the room, get him some supper, and then put him to bed.  I told her that that wasn't going to work in this case because he was with his older siblings and needed to stay there.  She was confused but said she would go talk to someone.  I never heard back from her so I assumed everything was all right but it was indeed a bit strange.  Sure enough, when we went and picked the kids up, she had just stayed there with Colby so it all worked out.  It was funny though because when we went to get them, they were watching the movie "Minions" which isn't a movie we would normally let the kids watch.  Calleigh says to me "I tried to tell them a couple of times that we weren't allowed to watch that movie but they didn't believe me and told me that I was just saying that because I didn't WANT to watch it."  I applauded Calleigh for her efforts but told her that sometimes in that situation you just have to go with it and it's not her fault for watching it.

Thursday was our big day.  Duncan had meetings in the morning so the spouses and kids had a special outing to tour Olympic Park via bus.  Olympic Park is aptly named because it was the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics and also where US Olympians train to be in the Olympics.  There were four buses to take all of us and as we waited in line to board one of them, there were a bunch of teenagers in front of us.  Calleigh looks at them and says to me, "We should go on the next bus.  I don't want to go on this one with a bunch of teenagers.  They are so loud." I will remind her someday that she said that.

Hanging with the Z's as usual.

Our tour took us to various sites and then we were dropped off at the main area/museum which we could tour on our own.  The plan was to have Duncan join us there and then spend the afternoon doing the various outdoor activities.  Unfortunately the weather looked really, really sketchy like it could start raining at any moment and they had a sign up that said "No refunds due to inclement weather."  You could do one activity for $15 or as many as you wanted for $40 (per person).  But who wanted to pay $80 or $120 (depending if Brady did stuff) and then a few minutes later, it all close down? Decisions, decisions.  While waiting for Duncan, I decided to spend $30 and have the girls go down a big hill on a tube.  The $30 would go towards the day pass if needed.  Well, they had such great fun with it and the skies seemed to clear slightly so we decided to gamble and go for the day pass.  I am so glad we did.  What ensued probably had to be one of the most fun days they have ever had.  At the end of it, all I could think of was "Who would pay $100 to go to Disney when they could pay $40 and come here??

Our tour guide, Leslie.  Didn't catch her last name but she is training on the skeleton for the next Olympics. 

The ski jump 

Beautiful view from up there.

Smaller area down below for people to practice jumping.  They land in a pool.

Aubree has another best friend.  She knows Becca Wandersleben from her Sabbath School.  She and Becca were born at the exact same hospital on the exact same day (May 19) and year although Aubree was born in the morning and Becca in the afternoon.  And yes, I do know Becca's mom, Jennifer, and we both got a kick out of having our babies on the same day at the time.

Inside the museum there were some neat virtual rides which included bobsledding, skiing, etc.  

Downhill ski jumping.  Trying to get Colby to lean forward as he started the jump.

Watching Karis take a turn.  Karis got such a kick out of how the characters looked when they crashed that I started dying of laughter too. 

One of the kids coming down on a tube.

The day was not without drama, however.  There wasn't a whole lot Brady could do but two of the things he could do were the tubing (which he did once and said he was good) and then a smaller (but still very worthy) ropes course.  It said the minimum weight requirement for it was 35 pounds.  Seeing as Brady just had his well visit appointment and was 35 pounds, I knew he was good to go. I spent the $40 and got him the pass.  About this time, Duncan arrived as Brady got in the line for the ropes course and I took Colby to the car for his nap (he fell asleep as I buckled him in, he was that tired).  I had been in the car for about 35 - 40 minutes and I got a text from Duncan, "They won't let Brady do it.  They said he weighed 30 pounds.  He is bawling." I was like, what?? 30 pounds?? No possible way!  Duncan texted back, "Nope, they won't let him do it." I was so upset.  I was ready to just jump out of the car and go give them a piece of my mind but I couldn't leave Colby, obviously.  A little later, Duncan texts me again saying he weighed Brady on the scale and it now said 34 pounds.  It was a non-digital scale, one of the ones where depending on the angle you are looking from, it looks different.  I was about to lose my mind, trapped in that car.  How dare they make you wait in line only to tell you that you aren't big enough?  How dare they sell me a ticket without weighing him first to be sure he's big enough in the first place? They better be giving me a refund.  But mostly I was heartbroken that my dear little boy had his heart crushed.  He had been so excited.  It wasn't just the boy who was crying.

A little while goes by and I don't hear anything from Duncan and I was just sick.  I couldn't even do anything but sit there.  Finally, I get a text from Duncan and it's a picture of Brady suiting up to do the ropes course!!  Turns out that Duncan got the brilliant idea to put a few rocks in Brady's pockets and bam!  Suddenly he's 35 pounds. And oh, how he loved it.  He did so great although he did need a little help from Zachary because he wasn't quite tall enough to reach some of the stuff (nothing to do with weight, mind you).  Lest you think we are these terrible, cheating people, a little later we went to the main ticketing area and they had a digital scale there.  Sure enough, he was 36.8 pounds.  When we got home, I also weighed him, naked, on our scale and he was 35.5 pounds. I feel completely vindicated!

Getting this picture made me so happy!

Brady holding the rock that put him over the top. 

So proud of my boy!  At the end of this course, there was a zip line.  In addition, there were other zip lines, an alpine coaster, and various other things (some of which were for adults only).

Hard to see but that's Aubree in the middle of your picture on the large course.  It was crazy because on the first hike in Moab, she was so apprehensive but then she did a complete 180 and had no fear on everything else.

Calleigh on the drop tower.  Aubree and Kaleb finished the ropes course at 5:58 and ran down to do the drop tower.  It closed at 6:00 and the lady wasn't going to let them do it but she finally relented when I said there was still two minutes.  I thought Aubree might freak out (I know I would!) when she got to the top but she didn't even hesitate dropping off the side.  Nor did Calleigh earlier.

After Colby woke up, I took him to McDonald's for a treat.  Other than the virtual rides, there wasn't much for a kid his size to do.  

We ate here for supper both Thursday and Friday.  The food was so good (cauliflower soup to die for!), cheap ($3.99 for kids meals which included grilled cheese and soup), and the employees were the friendliest people I've ever seen working in a restaurant.

Friday morning a large group of about 75 persons from the conference went on a white water rafting adventure.  After falling out of the raft on the one and ONLY time I will ever go white water rafting (which was in California, pre-kids), I was MORE than happy to stay behind with Colby while Duncan took the other three along with Ron and Elaine (they were now staying at a condo in Salt Lake City).  It was only a Class 2 which is apparently pretty tame but a big "no, thank you" for me on that.  Instead, Colby and I were very pleased to spend the morning at the children's museum in Salt Lake City along with Amy and Addision whom we rode with and later the Johnsons whom we met there.  It's actually really nice going to a museum with one kid because then you can go entirely at the pace of the one kid as opposed to four kids wanting to go four different places.  We found the museum to be quite well done and it was especially nice to get half off the admission using our Science Center pass.

Playing with Addison.

Just liked the tongue sticking out in this one.

I got a full report of the rafting trip upon our reunion.  It turns out that Elaine fell out of the raft but fortunately had no lasting effects from it and seemed to handle it much better than I.  Aubree almost got decapitated from a branch that the tour guide had warned her about but Aubree evidently didn't hear it.  She had to lean her head way, way back as the branch passed over her.  So yeah, other than those two things, it was a great time!

Friday and Sabbath afternoons Duncan took the three older ones on hikes while I stayed with a napping Colby.  It was really tough for me to sacrifice to do that but someone had to.  Hehe! The hike on Sabbath was almost six miles but they did really well.  Duncan had taken the backpack to carry Brady in if needed but he never did.

My sleeping buddy.  He did like to take naps in my bed.  After awhile, he would always get close to the edge and I'd be so paranoid he was going to roll off that I couldn't close my eyes or run to the bathroom for fear he'd fall off in that moment.  

Friday's hike.

You could hike up and then take the chair lift down. 

That is our hotel down there in the valley.

Sabbath afternoon hike.

They even had a snowball fight!  Excuse the butt picture. 

Duncan and Cory hiked a bit farther while Amanda stayed with the kids and they saw a couple of moose.

Some more random pictures from Park City:

Killing time at the outlets while the parents shop.

There was a little pool that the boys enjoyed playing in.

Each evening between 8:00 and 9:00 they served s'mores and hot chocolate.  Brady liked to pretend he was drinking coffee like Daddy.

The hotel mascot who hung out at the lobby twice daily.

Sabbath lunch alfresco.  Many of the meals were provided by AHS which was very nice.

Chatted with our neighbors and "cousin" Tiffany and Anthony and their new baby, Beckett. 

The boys did a nature scavenger hunt on Sabbath morning.

Meanwhile, the girls did a painting session.

And yes, we carried both of these painting home on the plane. 

Make your own trail mix for a snack.

Saturday evening was the ice cream social but it was really a big meal.  The only downside was that as it got darker, it got COLD.  I definitely did not pack enough cold weather clothes.

The girls getting in their last bit of friend time.  They had such a good time.  

There were a couple bigger boys, Cole Hilliard and Jonathan Brown, that were so great with Brady and Colby.  Cole and Jonathan would always wrestle and play with Brady and Colby whenever they crossed paths, which of course makes little boys happy. 

Sunday morning it was time to pack up and head out.  When I booked the tickets, the direct flights, which were only on Delta, were quite expensive although in hindsight I don't remember how much more.  Duncan's ticket and mine were paid for but we still had to pay for the kids so an expensive direct flight ticket times four adds up.  That left us with a Southwest flight connecting through Denver.  I did not want to leave at the crack of dawn so we ended up on a 4:25 departure, arriving Denver at 5:50, departing Denver at 7:10, and arriving in Orlando at 12:45 AM.  Of course, there is a two hour time change mixed in so arriving in Orlando at 12:45 was like 10:45 with the time we were accustomed to so not nearly as bad as it sounded.

I didn't want to leave Salt Lake City without at least driving by some of the significant landmarks so we drove by the Mormon Temple and that whole area.  It is very extensive and quite beautiful.  We also drove by the state capital and admired it's stunning view.  I did feel bad at that point that we haven't even visited our own state capital so I plan on making that a priority here very soon (I have lived in Florida for 18 years and never been to Tallahassee!).  We then headed to the airport and dropped off our rental.  As we were walking past the rental car counters, I hear Duncan say something to a guy who was walking quickly past him.  A second later, I realize what went down.  It was Mitt Romney! Fitting, in Salt Lake City I guess.  Duncan waved his hand and said "Hey Mitt." And Mitt replied back, "Hey."  He was clearly in a rush to get somewhere and Duncan said he was even sweating.

A beautiful view from the state capital. 

Mormon Temple

We had eaten a late breakfast, around 11:00, so as we waited to board our flight, the kids had a couple of snacks and my intention was that we would get some supper in Denver before our connecting flight.  The plan was going well...until about 45 - 60 minutes into our flight when the captain says "Some of you more astute travelers (apparently I am not part of this group) have noticed that we have been circling.  There is some bad weather in Denver and we can't land so we are circling."  When you hear that, your heart just sinks because you figure you will either miss you connecting flight or have no time at all to get to it.  A bit later he comes back on and says "Okay, the weather is still bad in Denver.  We are going to land in Grand Junction (Colorado) to refuel and then wait for further instructions."  Well, Duncan did want to stop there on the trip so I guess he got his wish! After sitting there for probably a good 30 minutes, we were finally told it had cleared up and we could take off.  He told us it was a 30 minute flight to Denver from there.  We did the math - - we wouldn't be landing until at least 7:20 and our other flight left at 7:10.  Duncan was none to pleased but I told him not to worry because it was possible that flight could be delayed for the same reason or if there were a lot of us on our current plane that were going to Orlando, they might hold the plane for us.  Nevertheless, my mind started to wander.  Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have to stay in Denver overnight.  The hotel would surely be a business expense.  Duncan didn't have to work Monday because of the holiday.  Some of our electronic devices, most notably my phone, were dying and wouldn't make it for another flight.  And, most importantly for the kids, we obviously wouldn't be able to get something to eat if we immediately ran to catch another flight.

As soon as we touched the ground, I turned on my phone and checked our flight, 2400. By now it was 7:30 and the plane should have certainly taken off.  The website listed it as "At gate" whatever that meant.  Surely it didn't mean it had taken off or they would have said so.  And then they came on the loud speaker and said "For those of you on Flight 2400 to Orlando, they are holding the plane."  A big cheer went up.  The other gate was right across from the gate we exited so it was an easy connection.  We found our seats and then the realization sank in that we would be eating peanuts for supper. We also were worried our luggage wouldn't make it but as we sat there, we saw all of our bags and car seats/boosters get loaded so that was a relief.  In the end, the flight didn't take off until nearly 8:00 pm.  Low and behold, there were actually empty seats and rows in the back of the plane too.  I honestly don't remember the last time I have witnessed that.  It seems to never happen anymore.  We did have peanuts for supper. But they also had some animal crackers and cheese crackers so we did have a little variety, at least.  I completely exhausted my supply of applesauce pouches and fruit snacks that I had put in my backpack, certainly not thinking we would go through all of them.  The good news was that I did have my laptop in my backpack this time which I was able to bring out and entertain Colby with for the majority of the trip.  Bliss!  He fell asleep about the last 20 minutes of the flight along with Brady.  Ron and Elaine were so kind to pick us up and we eventually rolled into our driveway sometime after 2:00 am.  God bless America for the holiday!

I am just going to skip over anything we've done since then.  I will say that while the time change out was so simple, the time change coming this way was so much harder especially for the girls who struggled with getting to sleep before midnight all the way through Friday night.  It was really tough for them.

In closing, the trip to Utah was just really, really fantastic and we hope that a few years from now, we will be able to return....this time with bigger boys that can do everything their bigger sisters can!

One last thing which is HUGE for me.  Soon after we got home, I was looking at Colby's tooth closely after trying to ignore it for awhile.  I am so, so, so excited to report that the darkening has reversed and it now the same white color again as the other front tooth.  I am beyond excited and if this isn't a direct answer to prayer, I don't know what is.  Praise the Lord!