Sam's Birthday

Sam is now officially a five year old.  We had a small family party for him with his now traditional birthday cherry pie instead of cake.  We measured his height today and he grew almost 3 inches over the last year.  He's becoming such a big boy!

Thanksgiving in Vegas and Black Canyon Raft Trip

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas, driving down right before a blizzard hit Utah.  Cindy and Brian drove down after the blizzard arriving Thanksgiving afternoon.  Our dinner was of course a Vegas buffet but there were all the Thanksgiving day trimmings. 

Some of the highlights of the trip were playing games, rides and watching circus acts at Circus Circus, seeing Penn and Teller, and best of all for me and Lindsey was going on a raft ride on the Colorado River with Cindy and Brian.  The raft ride started at Hoover Dam and went through the Black Canyon.  We even saw some desert bighorn sheep.

On the drive home Sunday we got caught in a snow storm and ended up spending the night in Fillmore.  It's no fun driving on snowpacked roads at 20 to 30 mph especially after dark.  The next morning the roads were clear and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way home.

The Christmas Season Has Officially Begun

When I was a kid it used to be the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas countdown would begin, but over the last several years it has morphed to the day after Halloween.  Lindsey's school had their Christmas concert this week on November 16 and 17.  Sorry, I just can't get in the mood before Thanksgiving. 

That being said, of course the kids were all cute and I'm very proud of Lindsey learning the words to the 3 songs the Kindergarten choir sang - Gingerbread Cookies, Chime In and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Lindsey was nervous to sing in front of a crowd but she bravely went up with the other Kindergarteners and she did great!

Park City Revisited

Last weekend while in Park City, we rented a condo using this website, http://www.parkcitymountain.com/.  The condo was at a place called Jupiter Peak Lodge that only has 4 units.  It turned out to be a really nice condo within walking distance of downtown Park City.  The hot tub wasn't working last weekend so the owner, a really nice lady called Penny, offered to let us come back again for a deeply discounted rate for another weekend before ski season began.  We were having such a good time that we jumped on the offer and went back this weekend.

Mostly we hung out and had some relaxing family time, but we did make it to the Utah Olympic Park http://www.olyparks.com/uop/index.asp.  Walking around there brought  back great memories of attending some of the 2002 Olympic ski jumping and bobsled events.  Wow, I can't believe it's already been 8 years since Utah hosted the Winter Olympics.

The Cowboy Express and the Crater

Last weekend we went to Park City and Heber Valley for some family fun and to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Oma and our good friends Cindy and Brian joined us for the weekend.  We rode on the Heber Valley Historic Railroad, aka the "Heber Creeper" due to it's slow and chugging pace.  There was a cowboy poetry and music gathering in Heber City so the train that day was called the "cowboy express" and had cowboy poets and musicians wandering through the cars to entertain us along with the beautiful scenery.  The musicians kept joking about trying to get their sea legs to play on the old swaying train.

http://www.hebervalleyrr.org/

After the train ride we headed to the Homestead Resort and it's so called "Crater", one of most unique places I've ever gone swimming.  The crater is a hot spring that naturally created a limestone cave with an opening at the top.  The top has been covered with plexiglass so it's warm in the cave with 90-96 degree water and a spot of sunlight coming through the hole in the top.  It's over 60 feet deep, but there's a platform on one side for little kids and people afraid of the deep.  It took some coaxing to get Lindsey on the deep side but once we did, she loved it so much she threw quite a fit when it was time to go.  I'm sure hunger helped contribute to her meltdown because we were all starving.  After a late lunch at the restaurant at the Homestead, we climbed up to the top of the crater to look down into the cave and also got some nice views of the Valley at dusk.  A beautiful ending to a great day.

http://www.homesteadresort.com/Crater

 

 

 

 

Veteran's Day 2010

Today at Lindsey's school they had a special assembly for Veteran's Day.  It was heart warming to see the active military and veterans that attended and were recognized, especially the older veterans.  After the assembly there was a ceremony outside to retire the school's old flag which was pretty tattered.  An honor guard from Hill Air Force Base took the old flag down and raised a new flag.  Then the old flag was burned.  I've never seen that done before and it was indeed moving and made me feel patriotic to be part of it all.  Many thanks to all the men and women who have served our country so bravely!

Happy 10th Anniversary

Ten years ago today, Blain and I were married in Las Vegas.  Thanks for the best years of my life  - so far!  The best is yet to come.

Halloween Weekend and Funtimes with Friends

I had a good friend and former coworker from my old days in DC come for a visit this weekend.  We did some local sightseeing together with my old Texas now Utahan friends.  This included a dinosaur park, a train museum and an air force museum plus eating out at different local restaurants and trick or treating with the kids.  Good friends and good times!  Unfortunately I managed NOT to get a picture of the kids in their costumes on Halloween night so I'm going to have to dress them up later this week for a photo op.