Girls Weekend Getaway

Last weekend was my first girls weekend getaway. Amy and Kathleen joined me in Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and we stayed at the Inn on the Creek. They both had super professional cameras and photography skills, so they took most of the pictures. I have a point and shoot Nikon that I can barely use, but I will post what I have and wait for them to send me some good ones with all of us in them. I don't even have any pictures of Kathleen because once she arrived the fancy cameras came out and mine stayed tucked away, except for the one I took of Amy sleeping (because she's always been the last one to get up) and the one I had taken of me an the Yetti in Park City. I realized after that I was supposed to give him some money, but oh well. I'm sure he did not expect such miserable weather when he came up with that bright money making scheme.

Our adventure began with the airport. Amy's brother and sister in law (Myron and Maggie Nilsson) work there bringing celebrity's in and getting them around town. I will post my very fuzzy picture of Myron and Amy looking very proffessional. Amy and Kathleen tried out their papparazzi skills and got several shots of big stars, namely Kareem Abdul Jabar, Adrien Brody (from King Kong), Dakato Fanning, and several people who looked like they might be someone and were not.

Our second adventure was had in trying to get home from the airport. The weather was insane and we thought we could die many times during this three day period. We tried waiting out the weather during dinner but it was not going away. Luckily I had a 4x4 and new windshield wipers, but the wipers were still in the box (it took us at least a half hour to get them on) and figuring out how to use my 4 wheel drive took a couple of days.

The next day Jason Kirks made us a super yummy breakfast and gave us the official tour of his town of Midway. We saw hot pots and a herd of a dozen Elk, Giant Frozen sprinkler water, Very big trees, and century old swiss style houses. Next, we headed to Park City to experience the festival festivities. All parking is on the outskirts of town during the festival and free shuttles take everyone from place to place. I haven't been on a city bus in so long, I forgot that it takes forever to get anywhere and it's so crowded. Most shuttles were crammed full of standing people and every stop had dozens of people getting off and on.

We had no tickets to any shows and getting them last minute is nearly impossible without serious connections. We met a lady on the bus that sold us some tickets that she wasn't going to use and by the time the bus got us back to the car and we considered the weather and the traffic, we realized there was no possible way to make it to the showing on time, so we did some outlet shopping instead. I got a great deal on boots and jeans.

We got very little sleep every night, which was just like old times and I would have it no other way. Hanging out with these two girls has always meant loads of great conversation, continual spontaneity, and next to no sleep. We had a very cute room and a great view but we spent most of our time out and about with no regard to the hazardous weather.

I loved my time away and my reunion with old friends, but I also loved returning to my very adorable and adoring family. Going away reminds a person how much it's good to be back. I think we plan to make these getaway's a regular thing and I truly hope so because I loved every part of it. Not even deathly winter weather could mess it up for me. And that's saying a lot.

A Bit Overwhelmed

Usually a long stint of not posting means that nothing interesting is going on. But if you have a blog I think you know that the opposite it also true. So much, so fast, where to begin, and the answer can easily be just don't begin.

Our holliday season was a lot of fun this year starting with halloween and straight through to new year's eve. It seems like there was plenty I should have documented here, including pictures, but the time zipped by and my camera battery was lost, so I just didn't. I bought myself a new camera during the black friday door busters and I have a few pictures to show for it, although learning to use it did result in accidentally deleted quite a few. We have some from Christmas that look very similar to last years pictures and a few of Jake's short experience wearing a goatee.

During Christmas break most of my family got the flu, followed by strep throat and bronchitis, so it did get a little fuzzy there for a while. We had to miss out on some holliday visitors and my efforts to deliver homemade baked goods was half done and ended in the garbage..Sorry neighbors. We celebrated several birthdays, attended three business christmas parties, I threw the ward christmas party complete with dinner and santa, and Lydia was our first child to get baptized. All of that happened within a couple of weeks, so that too is kind of a blur.

Now that the new year has started, we are going to make an effort to plan our trips, activities, and celebrations one at a time and I plan to do a much better job documenting them here. This can be one of my many new years resolutions. But I think these pictures are pretty cute and I'm going with the better late than never defense.