Park City

This week underscored our general impression that Andrew *loves* water. In any form. He loves to water grandma's plants, turn on the hose (by himself, no less, and usually unasked)--he even did this when I went visiting teaching last month, much to my chagrin. And he especially loves swimming. Unfortunately, we haven't done much of it this summer, because I didn't feel up to taking him and the baby, and Dan didn't have much time. This last week we finally decided to go to a local swimming pool I've been wanting to go to all summer (the Veteran's pool), and it was a big hit. In fact, we (especially Andrew) enjoyed it so much that I wish we'd discovered it sooner in the summer. It has a wonderful little water playground for kids, and a kiddie pool that doesn't get much deeper than about 24 inches. Sadly, the pool is only open for the summer, and closed on Saturday until next summer. We tried to cram as many visits in as we could--our family went for FHE on Monday, and Andrew, Evelyn and I went again on Wednesday with Jeni and her kids. Evelyn wasn't as enamored of the water as Andrew was--she cried the first time, so I pretty much just held her and walked around the pool (and took pictures). The next time, she actually condescended to be put in the water, and, though her eyes got really big, she was pretty placid.



Doesn't Andrew have a lovely farmer's tan?
This week also marked my family's annual trek to Park City, where my parents have a time-share condo. My parents went up on Sunday, but, since Dan had to work, we didn't go up until Wednesday (my parents kindly arranged for us to stay in *another* of their time-shares--they really like the Park City time share thing, apparently!). Our first night was pretty horrible--we had a late departure (due mostly to our visit to the pool that afternoon)--and didn't get up until after Andrew's bedtime. Then, our room was a studio room, that's really only appropriate for a couple who plan to be out most of the time--a single room that's mostly taken up by the murphy bed. There wasn't really anywhere to put Andrew's bedrolls except for the closet--so that's where we put him. But Andrew was so stimulated by the novelty of it all that he didn't go to sleep until past 9 (this for a boy who's usually asleep by 7:30), so of course he woke up at 5:50 the next morning. And Evelyn chose that night to be particularly fussy, and was awake most of the time between 2 and 4 in the morning. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep.

Luckily, on Thursday my mom upgraded us to a bigger room with a real bed, a sofa pull-out, and a divider that could be used to separate the room into two smaller rooms (perfect for putting Andrew to bed at night). Dan drove down to Provo for work, but he missed the turn to Heber and ended up going through Salt Lake City instead, a detour that added a good thirty to forty minutes to his drive. All was not lost, however, since his new route took him right past a Krispy Kreme's store . . . I gather he had donuts for breakfast *and* lunch. Meanwhile, after moving all our stuff into the bigger room, my mom and I got down to what was the real business of our "vacation"--shopping (the Park City outlets, after all, are always a huge draw). I'm actually pretty impressed with how much I managed to resist buying, since my kids already have plenty of clothes (especially Evelyn, who is benefiting from the largesse of Jeni, Sarah, and Mitcee's girls). Anyway, our day mostly consisted of going to the outlet mall, going back for lunch and to put Andrew down, then abandoning Andrew to grandpa (guess who was less than thrilled about this arrangement?) while we went back to the mall, coming back for dinner . . . you get the picture. Andrew, I was reminded, is no fun to shop with--he tries to run off, hide in the clothes, open doors that aren't supposed to be opened, etc. As we drove back to the hotel for lunch before naptime, Andrew kept insisting (almost in tears) that he wasn't tired . . . only to fall asleep in the car. I carried him up to the room and was presented with incontrovertible truth: my baby is growing up. He's huge! And heavy. (I think he's around 37-8 pounds now).

My mom kindly offered to take Andrew Thursday night so that Dan and I could get some extra sleep (which we much appreciated!). I don't know that my mom enjoyed it much (Andrew was up at the crack of dawn again), but she said they had fun playing in the morning. One of the funnier moments came when Andrew, after trying to turn on the water in the bathroom sink, suddenly ran into the other room and picked up the phone. My mom told to put the phone down, but Andrew insisted, "But I have to call them and tell them to bring us a stool for the sink!" (Apparently he'd been observing closely when my mom called housekeeping and asked for some dishsoap for the dishwasher).

On Friday, Dan decided to take a much earned day off work, and so we took Andrew to a local park in the morning. Andrew loved it (as he does pretty much all things outdoors).

He was especially fond of this digger, and he was almost tall enough to make it work properly. He had to brace his legs against the handles, because he wasn't quite long enough to reach the ground. All went well until he fell off one of the cement retaining walls you can see in the picture. Although he wasn't badly hurt, this did make him a bit emotional, and when another little girl tried to play with "his" digger, he had a total come-apart and we had to head back to my parents' hotel.


This is what Evelyn spent most of her time doing at the park. Isn't she sweet?


Dan kindly stayed with Andrew while he slept (I don't think I could pay Grandpa enough to do it again--at least not without bringing some serious toys to distract Andrew with), and my mom and I went shopping again. But only for a little while, since we wanted to be back at the rooms when Jeni arrived with her kids that afternoon. After dinner, the kids all went swimming (Andrew for the second time that afternoon--he was one tired boy by bedtime). I tried to take Evelyn swimming with the others, but the water was a bit cold and, although she didn't cry, she was clearly not happy.

Saturday was kind of crazy. We had planned on celebrating Jacob's birthday, and were waiting for Samuel and Jared and his kids to arrive. In the meantime, Jeni wanted to go to the Outlet stores to find some new clothes for her, so she and I went with our two youngest, and my mom and Dan took Andrew, Emi, and Jacob to the park. We got back shortly before Jared arrived, and, while we waited for Samuel (and for lunch), Jared entertained the kids by blowing up balloons and letting them go. My favorite part of this was how all of them would jump up and down in excitement. This kept them entertained for a good twenty minutes or so. (The video gives you some sense of how excited they were).

After Samuel arrived, we had lunch, then presents, and then cupcakes (in that order). My mom presented Jacob with several power ranger toys, and, in a gesture of magnanimity, gave a power ranger to Emi, Andrew, and Joshua. I think Andrew was the most excited of all of them, and we've had to dissuade him from taking the power ranger to bed with him (mostly because he would stay up playing with it)--although he did take it to church with him today. (In my defense, Andrew was insisting that he needed to stay home with his power ranger, so I thought that at least going to church with it was the lesser of two evils).

We took Andrew back to our hotel room for a nap (and despite protests that he wasn't tired, he was asleep within minutes) while the older kids went to the pool, and when we returned to my parents' place we found that Jeni was on her way out with her kids (who had not slept much the night before and needed to be in their own beds). We went with my parents, Jared, Joshua, and Brielle up to the Alpine Slide, but were deterred by the length of the line waiting for the slide (and, on our part at least, some misgivings about trying to take Andrew on the ski lift). Instead, we opted for miniature golf and a carousel. We discovered that Joshua is a great little golfer, but Andrew lacks the patience and discipline for the sport (maybe Poppy needs to give him some lessons). Then we waited and waited and waited for the carousel. (I think they were short on attendants--no one was manning the ride). When the kids finally got on the ride (I watched with Grandpa and Evelyn), it was the longest ride in the history of the world (possibly to make up for the long wait)--it just went on and on. Andrew was so funny--he was determined to sit on this little elephant, even though it was one of the only animals that didn't go up and down. But he was perfectly happy with his choice until, two thirds of the way through what was probably a ten minute ride, he spotted the zebra right in front of him . . . At any rate, by the time we got through with the carousel, the people who were in line for the slide when we arrived were just coming down the mountain, so it turns out we didn't save much time. But I think the kids had fun, and that was what mattered.

Below, Andrew and Joshua were pretending to be frogs, hopping on lily pads.

We packed up this morning and drove back just in time for church. And this brings us to the end of a rather hectic week--Dan's spent the afternoon recovering from our "vacation" (i.e., hiding in the basement).