Summer at the Summit

My family has an annual tradition (of sorts) of spending a week at my parents' time-share in Park City. This began sometime when I was in high school, and seems to be enjoyed by pretty much everyone (for different reasons, of course): my mom likes the proximity to the outlet malls, my dad likes the air-conditioned rooms and the TV and the chance to get away, and the kids love swimming. When I was younger, I enjoyed hiking and going for long walks around the city (apparently my siblings don't have such fond memories of those walks, since I alternately dragged and cajoled all of them on these perambulations), but I won't be doing much of that until the kids get bigger. Even the .5 mile walk to the nearby park just about did them in. (Jeni and I had four stroller seats between the two of us, and whichever kid got left out to walk inevitably complained and felt ill-used).

Dan couldn't come with us, because of work obligations (ditto my sister's husband). But Jeni and I spent the week with our kids and my parents, and Jared and Mitcee were able to come for a long-weekend. I think the best thing about the whole visit was watching the cousins play together. (In fact, none of them wanted to come home. Evelyn has yet to enter our driveway without crying, "Grandma's house!"--and we've been home almost 48 hours now. On the upside, she knows how to say "Park City" now.)

Here are the kids, all gussied up for their first trip to the pool. What cracks me up is how loaded they are with flotation devices. Apparently, my children have little to no fear of the water, which, while sometimes gratifying, is mostly terrifying (I keep imagining what they would do if left to their own devices around large bodies of water). Andrew kept trying to reduce the number of flotation devices so that he could "go underwater." He finally learned that he needed to keep his mouth shut in addition to plugging his no, so that was good. He also enjoyed cannon-balling into the water (his cousins and the random strangers he often careened into didn't like this so much).

Evelyn was a delight to watch in the water--this was the first time she really got to enjoy it on her own (well, with me an arm's length away). After watching her brother for a while, she insisted on getting out of the pool to try jumping in. At first, I helped her jump in, but after she protested, I backed away to see what she'd do. (I thought she'd chicken out and get me to help her). Instead, my dauntless girl simply stepped right off the edge into the water. I think this was a bit much for her, because the next time we went swimming she wouldn't do it anymore (although she still liked climbing in and out of the pool). She did finally shuck her innertube on the last day, though, convinced that her water wings would be enough to hold her up. They weren't--but she thought she was pretty cool to just have water wings like the big kids.


I have to say this (even if he is my brother): Jared is pretty fantastic with kids. He had them all eating out of his hands while he was there. (Although he was also the instigator of some of the noisier routs).

On Monday, we took all the kids up to the alpine slide. (And no, you're right, this is a carousel, not a slide). Since the kids outnumbered the grown-ups and the only kids tall enough to ride alone refused to do so, we had to take them down in shifts. I offered to stay below with the three littlest ones while the older ones went down with parents and grandparents.

We had some tickets for the kiddie rides, so we went on the carousel and the dinky little train (excuse me, rocket cars!). Unfortunately, I didn't time things very well, and we were done with both events before the parents had even gotten off the ski lift (I hadn't anticipated that the lift would stop, which it did.)



The kids thought the little train was fantastic--I wish I could have gotten a video of this so you could hear them giggling the entire time. (I don't know why--it really is a dinky little ride.)

Here come the grownups and the big kids.




The funny thing is, Jacob and Andrew were both pretty nervous beforehand, but afterward they both maintained this was the coolest thing they did. My mom also complained that Andrew pulled on the brake almost the entire way down the mountain, and she thought they would never reach the bottom. To hear Andrew tell, it, though, they went so fast. The little kids, with fewer preconceptions, seemed to enjoy the ride a lot more.


Afterward, we went back to the hotel suite for lunch, and then took the older kids back for a round of miniature golf (Evelyn stayed behind with grandpa to nap). Andrew loved it. He had a few problems with his form, but that didn't stop him. If you watch the video below, you'll also understand why it was that he was the first of the cousins to finish. (Poppy, we thought you would appreciate this!)

Most of what we did wasn't quite so high excitement--the kids played together, made crafts, and swam. Some mornings we walked down to the park (which had, among other things, a zip line!). We also dragged the kids to the outlet mall to stock up on some clothes and shoes for the fall. They weren't as excited about this, but they were pretty good. (Well, aside from Andrew running laps around the shoe store to make sure that the tennis shoes he was trying on fit.)

My mom told me I had to be sure to include this funny story about Andrew. Before we left for Park City, Andrew kept trying to "help" them load the car so we could get on the road faster. At one point, my mom told him he needed to be patient. To which Andrew responded: "I'm allergic to patience. Achoo!"

So now you know.

I have to admit, though, that despite the good times we had, it feels even better to be home. (I've been away from my house the better part of the summer, and I'm ready to be stationary for a while. At least for a couple of weeks.)