Winter Break in UT

Randy needed a break from his job and I missed my family so we killed two birds with one stone by driving to UT for the boys' winter break.  We skied at Brighton for a couple days and hung out with Randy's family, then dropped Randy at the airport so he could get back to his favorite job ever while I hung out with my family.  And ate food.  I tell you, my family's love language is eating good food together and I have no problem with that!

Anyway, the drive down was uneventful due to my determination to not get stuck in a storm.  I watched the weather forecast across WA, OR, and ID for a week straight so we hightailed it out of WA on Friday night, spent the night at a hotel so the boys could swim their brains out, and arrived in UT the next day without any trouble.  

 Utah means family time.  We managed to see both of our grandmas {too bad I didn't get a pic with mine) and even squeezed in a quick visit with the Peterson's, our Oki family {didn't get a pic with them either.  Too much catching up to do, I guess.}

Marcus is the oldest cousin on both sides of the family but for some strange reason, the Ball cousins adore him and can't leave him alone.  He absolutely loves it.

Skiing was awesome!  Landon went from cautious skier on the green runs to zipping in and out of trees and keeping up with the big boys. Parker went from brand-new skier to being totally independent and fearless, even after face planting in the powder.  The boys loved skiing with Parker and fought over who got to sit by him on the lift which made my heart melt. I realized this is one activity we can do as a family that the older kids enjoy just as much as the younger so that makes me very happy!

Let's pause and take a look at Parker's ski helmet.  His head is so HUGE his helmet doesn't fit over his head like it should, even though it's the right size.  Makes him look oh so special.....in a bad way.

 Yes, I skied too and was very careful to not fall.

ALL my boys skiing at the same time!  Major fist bump on this one. 

Cousins skiing.  Marcus and Ethan were excited to show off their skiing abilities.  If it were up to them they would've stuck to the double-black runs the whole day

Randy's family joined us for skiing the first day and his mom came again the second day.  She did a good job not falling as she tried to keep up.

 

 

 Once we were at my dad's house we finally got to sleep in and relax after two days of hardcore skiing.  The boys loved being lazy and wasted no time breaking out the pirate swords.

 I walked up above my dad's house and admired the brown ugliness of UT in February

We played a lot of Nintendo with the cousins {so I could sit around and do nothing} and the boys got to try out the old school Power Pad.  I was happy to show them a thing or too.

 

 The boys were super excited to swim at the rec center and race across the obstacle course.  They are ready to be the next contestants on Wipe Out for sure!

 Marcus took Parker down this water slide at least 20 times so he could enjoy the freedom of swimming in a place without stupid rules. Our rec center won't allow kids on the slide until they're practically adults and pass a swim text.  It's pathetic but I digress...

 

 I took the boys on a little field trip to the Church History museum.  They have a new kids section that was fun to play in but my favorite part was learning about the Angel Moroni statue that is on top of every LDS temple.  This one is over ten feet tall, made of steel, and covered in gold leafing.  You're not allowed to touch it but a sweet old lady who wasn't afraid of my rowdy boys because she was a boy mom too, taught us all about the statue and gave the boys gloves so they could touch it.

 We met up with Dad for lunch at our favorite burger place, Crown Burger.  Marcus told my Dad he couldn't remember if a Crown Burger was better than a Big Mac and my Dad knew that problem needed to be remedied, and fast!  Marcus was pretty excited to pig out and so was I.  Honestly, it's the fry sauce and onion rings I can't get enough of.  Ethan ate his first Crown Burger too but couldn't quite finish it off.  Uncle Greg was happy to help him out!

 

Since it was our last day in UT, it always means we cram everything in that we possibly can.  After lunch, the grandparents took the kids to the church to run around and burn off some energy.  Marcus and Megan got some basketball tips from my dad while the little boys ran through the halls playing laser tag and then it was home for dinner so my dad could make his famous pancakes-as-big-as-your-face because Landon couldn't go back to WA without eating one. 

 

Landon ate the whole thing!  They are delicious and Dad even makes them from scratch without following a recipe.  Kathy makes a mean caramel syrup to go on top and basically it's about as healthy as our Crown Burger lunch was.

 

After the unhealthy dinner, my sister April invited everyone to her house for nachos and a game night.  I was stuffed beyond stuffed but I'm not one to turn down good food when it's offered so of course I ate nachos too.  Basically it felt like we spent our last day eating a lot of really good, really unhealthy food.  It made it easy for me to nibble on carrots the whole drive home the next day.

Utah was good to us.  Many thanks to our family, especially our parents, who make time for us in their busy lives.  I know they are more than a little relieved to see us go so they can have their quiet house back!