Park City Day 1

Hello all! I know you were wondering "what the heck happened to Nicole? She was doing so good blogging until now." Well we went on our summer family vacation to Park City, Utah. This was thanks to Darren's company house that we have access to one week out of the year. We have been really looking forward to it.

The plane ride was pretty good. I brought a suitcase filled with junk from the $1 store that was thoroughly entertaining for the boys. We were lucky to have a family with kids behind us so I didn't feel like we were being judged the entire time. I won't expect the same on the ride back.

When we stepped off the plane in our shorts and t-shirts we realized that we miscalculated in our packing. Apparently a cold front came through making the highs in the 50s in Salt Lake City. So after driving to Park City in our not nearly nice as our own minivan, our first stop was shopping for pants and long sleeve shirts.


Here the boys are in their new sweaters. They chose these. I never would have chosen these "just off the yacht" sweaters but at $4 a piece I couldn't say no to the pleading!


This was the view as we drove into Park City. Isn't it amazing!

We dropped by the visitor center and then went over to the Olympic Park to watch the skiers practicing the ski jumps landing in a giant pool of water. Very cool to watch (both metaphorically and physically).


Who wants to jump into a giant pool in the freezing cold weather with skis on???
Apparently these people!


It cracks me up that Ian really looks like he is steering. If only the background didn't look like a museum floor. Photoshop anyone? Note we still have the long bushy hair. He likes to be referred to as "Paul" for future reference.

Even Daniel got in on the yacht sweaters. I have no idea why these didn't sell.

This was followed by a quick trip to the grocery store.

Then we drove on over to the company house. HOLY COW! You don't realize what a dump your own house is until you see something like this. This is the life! A 5 bedroom 5 1/2 bath fabulous home. When can we come back? There is almost no reason to leave, other than the fact that we are in a beautiful town with mountains and wildlife and even snow on the tops of the mountains.

Check it out...

This is what we drove up to every day for the last week. It was a 3 story monster of a gorgeous house.
This was the main floor living room.
This is the main floor kitchen and eating area. We loved sitting and watching the chipmunk play at our meals. The house even came with a high chair.
Another view of the amazing kitchen.
This was the dining room on the main floor. Ian pointed out it was way too fancy for Daniel to sit at.

This was bedroom 1 on the first floor. The first night the boys shared this bed, even though there were 5 other free beds in the house. This was what they (Ian) wanted.
This was bedroom number 2 on the main floor. Daniel slept in a provided pack'n play in the closet of this room. Hey look how much furniture there is, it was the only place to set up.
This was bedroom number 3 on the lower level. The future room of Ian and Alex much to the disappointment of the both of them. Alex wanted his own room because "seeing Ian was too tempting and he couldn't stop talking." Ian wanted his own room because "someone was going to steel" him. My logic of "someone won't steel you because then they would have to pay to feed you" didn't seem to make him feel comforted. So, after some begging on my part Alex relented.
Bedroom 4 on the lower level.
This was the living space on the lower level. It was only used in passing. The bathroom down here also had a sauna but we never got to use it :( Guess we will have to return. Anyone wanting to join us by now?

This was the lower level game room, fully equipped with surround sound stereo, t.v's, Foosball, a pool table and darts.
This is the 3rd floor game room, sitting area. Not the gigantic chess table - a real favorite of my boys.
This was the master bedroom. A wonderfully comfortable king size bed with a ...
fire place
and a walk-in closet that was bigger than our boys rooms at home. This is the closet completely filled with EVERYTHING we brought- look how empty it looks. And yes you caught me, technically Daniel could have slept here instead of the much smaller downstairs closet but... why would we share. Ian begged to sleep in here rather than on a separate floor but we would not give in. Mom and dad do need their own space sometimes. The bathroom was equally as large with a whirlpool tub. I won't go into details but I will say IT was used.

This was the back yard. We actually ate at that picnic table.
The backyard view.
Another view! Isn't it all too amazing!
Stay tuned for 7 more days of fun!