Utah...It's not just for Mormons anymore! :-)

Some might wonder, "Utah...really? What do they have there besides Mormons?" when we say we went there for our vacation. Well, yes, the Mormons do rule all in Utah and they bring with them a slew of strange rules, especially when it comes to things like alcohol (oh, the horrors of a glass of wine!)...but that's for another post, I guess.

My mom and dad (aka--Nana and Papa), my sister Dana and brother-in-law Travis from London, and my Uncle Steve and Aunt Janie from Montana met us up at my parents' condo at Snowbird Resort last week. The ski resort is at the top of the Wasatch Mountains, just one canyon over from Park City, which is where the last Winter Olympics were held. The resort is beautiful and has two pools, a hot tub on each condo's deck, an Alpine Slide, a Zip Line, bungee trampolines, a chair lift and a tram to enjoy. Each day we did a little something, like going to the Farmer's Market in Salt Lake City, exploring the town of Park City, going on a mountain hike, or riding the Alpine Slide. But most of the time was spent laughing and hanging out with the family, eating, going to the pool, eating, reading, entertaining Maddie...oh, did I mention eating? I gave up on all my healthy rules this vacation and indulged--and now I think my waistband is paying the price. Oh well, it's VACATION! :-)

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. We were setting up our cameras to do a timed shot on our last night, but Maddie quickly figured out how to press the button and started snapping shots of us like crazy. Nothing like a curious toddler to create pure joy and laughter!

Here's the "real" shot. (Me, Dana, Travis, Mom, Maddie, Dad and Keith)

A girl's gotta look her best when she has a big day ahead. Curlers are a must. Dana's jewelry collection came next. :-)

One of the days we split off into two groups after we drove up into a canyon. My mom and I took Maddie to an easy 1-mile trail around a lake (also known as "the easy out" from a killer hike!) where we watched ducks, collected rocks in our pockets and them threw them in the lake, and watched in amazement as a huge moose ate nearby. The rest of the group, including my Uncle Steve and Aunt Janie, hiked to the top of the mountain and over the top of the pass to our ski resort, which was about 6-6.5 miles of steepness! Half of the trail was still covered with snow.

My sister Dana with her favorite (and only) niece.

I love that this photo captures the love between Maddie and her Papa!

Maddie's absolute favorite thing was watching the tram go up the mountain, just outside our deck. Every single time she saw it (every 30 minutes, all day long) she'd literally *squeal* with delight! :-)

Riding on the tram.

To get to the top of the Alpine Slide hill, which is right next to the condos, you had to take a short chair lift ride. The first time that Keith took Maddie, he hadn't figured out how to put the bar down in front, so he was clutching her for dear life. :-)

Keith was the only one of us brave enough to give the mechanical bull a run for its money. He did awesome and stayed on for 10+ seconds! Way to go, honey!

Racing down the Alpine Slide, side-by-side with Papa. Maddie kept saying, "Faster, faster! More!" and got pretty fearless by the end.


What a wonderful vacation--too short, as always! We miss you already everybody! :-)