Park City: Part 1

This is how it all started...

Friday, July 2nd: 6:10 am flight...

Clearly, the kids are excited to be on the plane. With a family of six, we don't fly on too many family vacations (usually only to Utah), so this was a special treat. Easton was too little to remember the last time he flew, so he thought this was all way too cool.

After we picked up our rental car (a maroon mini-van that the kids all thought was awesome because it had so much room inside and doors that slid open with the push of a button), we went out to eat at J.B.'s in downtown Salt Lake for an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. We were stuffed, so it was a good thing we decided to walk some of it off shopping for a couple of hours at the Gateway Mall in downtown SLC.

Then we made the 30-minute drive to Park City, where our first stop was, of course, PROMONTORY! We met my good friend, Stephen, at the Outfitter's Cabin and grabbed some fishing gear. (He works with me on the project - he's the controller up at Promontory). He volunteered to take us fishing at the Mountain Garden Lake on property, which was just recently re-stocked with a bunch of rainbow trout.

We've sort of completely neglected the teach your kids how to fish part of parenting. That is one of the chapters in the raising your kids book, right? Well, good thing we aren't living in Katniss Everdeen's day or we'd be in a world of hurt. Having to hunt our own dinner. (Reference to Hunger Games in case you haven't read them). So our kids have never been. Not once. Never cast a line. And my husband is the scoutmaster. Go figure. I haven't been since I was a kid.

Rowan and Barrett. I think they look a little too cute to be fishing, what do you think?

For rookies, I'd say we did pretty amazing. Easton was the first one to catch a fish. It only took him about five minutes and he had a bite. A big one.

Ryan had to help him reel it in, but he was all smiles as it came up flipping around on his line.

No fish stories here. The proof is in the pictures!

Afton was next. She's just standing there looking all cute, and then BAM!

She was a little scared and confused about how the reel worked, so Stephen helped her out.

Fish #2 for the Brown family. (Yes, it was catch and release so they all made it back to their homes in the water. They just had to suffer through the photo op.

And finally, Barrett caught one too. Rowan's cheese bait never tempted the trout enough, I guess, so she was a little bummed to come home fish-less.

The kids finished up fishing, and I left to go to a meeting for a couple of hours. But as soon as I was done, they picked me up and we headed straight to the Ranch Clubhouse and had a spectacular afternoon.

The kids rode the Adventure Trail waterslide over and over and over...

Afton perfected the art of the perfect full-splash launch after her 57th ride. Seriously, she was awesome. Every time she flew down at lightning speed and launched halfway across the pool. It was hilarious.

Rowan's favorite was the backwards ride.

And Barrett just flew down every which way, always cracking up as she came down. After the kids rode about 200 times (I don't think I'm exaggerating), we walked back to the main pool and ordered up some dinner. We soaked in the jacuzzi for a while while we waited.

Easton couldn't hold on through dinner. He passed out about half-way through. He'd only been up since 4:00 am, shopped, walked, fished, and taken a couple hundred rides down the slide. Hmmm...not sure why this four-year-old would be tired.

After we finished swimming and eating, we showered up at the Club and drove back into downtown PC (about 15 minutes away) and checked into the Calendonian for the weekend. We love that place! It's right on Main Street and has so much room inside the townhome. Seriously, awesome.

Of course, the kids got their second wind and had no desire to hit the hay since it stays light for so long with the daylight savings, so we decided to take a Friday night walk along Main Street.

Easton obviously woke up after his little poolside cat nap.

We ended our first day in Park City with a little ice cream from the Chocolate Factory. It was all good. The flight, the shopping, the fishing, the waterslide, the memories, the incredible time with the kids. We all crashed so hard that night. I'm pretty sure I didn't move an inch. I was so glad that we were on vacation so I could sleep in a little and recover from Friday's "too much fun" before starting Day 2. More to follow...