Sightseeing in Utah - Heber, Midway, and Park City

Thursday we went to the Fournis's apartment. They are missionaries at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City.  They walk down and take the Trolley to work every morning. They showed us their cute little apartment.  It is small, only one bedroom, but new. They have a lovely view of the mountains. They don't have a car, so I wanted to drive them around a little. 

First, we took them up to Heber, Utah. We went to lunch at the famous Dairy Keen restaurant there. We had yummy corn dogs, fish and chips, bacon chicken burgers, sweet potato fries, and of course, milkshakes. 

Brother S really liked his milkshake and the little bag of candies that the Fournis gave him.

 We went on to Midway to see the ice castles, which we heard were open and special to see. Like this:

Except we got there and "what?!" they were not open yet!  We were all so disappointed.  

 Instead, we drove up to Park City to check out the ski resort and little town. We talked about our recent family adventure to the Sundance Resort and how often I was able to enjoy snowboarding when I lived in Utah. 

Then we stumbled on the Heber Valley Artisan Cheese shop and factory.  We watched them making the cheese and sampled some of their wares.  I thought it was so cool to be able to see the cows right from the production room windows. 

 Here we are in front of the little shop right before we headed back to drop them off at their apartment.  It was such a wonderful day for me.  I love them and had so much fun talking to my adoptive/host parents about their ideas on farming and life in general. 

Sightseeing in Utah - Thanksgiving Point

We went to Thanksgiving Point one day to see the new Museum of Natural Curiosity.

There was a snowstorm that day so the Discovery Garden and Waterworks were not open sadly.  But we still managed to play for 3-4 hours without anyone getting bored. 

The kids loved the "Tunnel of Courage" in the Rainforest section. 

They had this big case of huge live cockroaches. Nobody was courageous enough to put their hand inside, except me! and I squealed. The kids thought that was so awesome.

Then they went out to climb around in the huge 4 story jungle area.

Brother S was really scared of all the rope bridges. I was so proud of him when he finally cautiously made the attempt.

There was also a play area for the under 3 year olds.  Baby L started walking most of the time while we were on our trip.

Big sis A tested out her "hang like a sloth" skills.

In the make believe city of Kidopolis they staged a performance in a little theater,  Complete with their names in lights.

They cut a demo in the music studio.

 Then we relaxed while making sand paintings.

My favorite of all the activities was the one we discovered last - this stop motion animation studio. It was so cool to help the kids make their own mini films.

Goodbyes and Reunions

After 6 happy years we said one last goodbye to our house before setting off for vacations with friends in Utah.  We hope the new owners love it and our neighbors as much as we have.

 And goodbye to our Maryland cousins...

Nancy met us at the airport and helped juggle the luggage and carseats into the rental van.

We visited her home in SLC with this great view and then had lunch together at City Creek Mall.

We stayed with our best buddies at their Dacha during the time we were in Utah.

The day after we arrived big sister A went to school with her buddies E and H. They attend a super charter school of the Walden variety.

One of their studies that day was Yoga!

 

On Friday we had a Chanukah party with gelt, dreidels, latkes, and other yummy traditions.

On Saturday we went to Sundance for snowboarding. Here the kids are before we rented the rest of our gear.

 I did not get to do any snowboarding myself.  I did run up the mountain 10 times along side the kids on the tow rope... while carrying baby L in a hiking backpack.

Afterwords we had a big hot cocoa party at the lodge.