Park City and Provo - Spring Break
SATURDAY
We left Colorado Springs at about 3:00pm and arrived at the Park City Condo at 12:30am. Saturday morning the group got ready to ski and I walked down with them to the Cabriolet where we met the Cooks and Katie! Fun to see all of them! They had a great day skiing. I headed back to the Condo to relax, drink hot chocolate, get ready and blog. Ryan was busy taking his Albanian Language test or else he would have joined the skiers.
The kids started to trickle back to the Condo around 1:00pm. That’s one of the best things about being so close to the ski resort. The kids can just come home whenever they are done. Chris and the boys were the last to come home. The boys just love every minute of their ski days with Dad.
We hung out at the Condo and had some good ‘catch-up’ time with the Cooks. Love them.
At 4:30 we headed down to Provo, met up with Ryan and grabbed 180 tacos and took them back to my Mom’s house for KATIE’S MISSION CALL OPENING — which will be a POST in and of itself. Exciting stuff!!
SUNDAY
We headed to a Salt Lake City ward for church at 9:30 since Park City was having Stake Conference. Fun to have my family take up the whole pew again.
After Sacrament Meeting (and Hayden’s church at the hospital) we headed to the University of Utah Hospital to visit with Hayden. It was so good to visit with him and his mom, Kristy. He is doing great.
We played some games with the Jacksons, had a big lasagna dinner, did our Come Follow Me ‘family church’ lesson and then went outside for a walk through the fancy Park City neighborhoods by the condo.
Sunday night I drove back with Ryan and Katie and slept over in Katie’s dorm — which was so fun. Fun to see all their friends and roommates for a minute and fun to catch up with just my Katie girl. She read me part of her Patriarchal Blessing and we had a great talk.
MONDAY
Katie and I ran a couple miles — I could hardly keep up with her. Katie’s been doing the LAZY IRON MAN with Claire and Abbey this month. Run 26 miles, Bike 100 miles and Swim 2.4 miles… all in the month of March. Impressive. Then Katie went to class while I got ready and read some of my book. Katie has such a cute little dorm room. She and Daylee have had a great year together.
After their classes, I picked up Ryan and Katie at Ryan’s apartment and took them to Magleby Fresh for lunch. And then to Target to pick up a few things for Katie, and some fruits and vegetables for both of them.
Back at Ryan’s apartment for a bit until Katie had to leave for class. I took some pictures of Ryan in his room and then I headed to the BYU bookstore so he could get some stuff done.
We’ve been able to talk to the kids a lot throughout the last couple of months but it sure is fun to see them in their element. In their apartments, with their roommates and friends, working on homework at their desks.... so great.
How about that hysterical Avengers Movie Check list? They’ve been working on that for the whole semester and have movie parties 2 or 3 times a week. I love it. So does Ryan.
I love his bulletin board as well. Mission stuff, Albanian stuff, Lord of the Rings stuff, Family, BYU, Mark and the Savior. His favorite things in a nutshell. So great.
After my extensive BYU bookstore tour and the kids BYU afternoon classes, I picked them up again and we headed back up to the Condo in Park City just in time to help get dinner ready. The Theurers were in town and came over for a big Taco Dinner.
Then the kids headed over to the heated pool for some night swimming. Always fun to be together.
TUESDAY
Tuesday morning Megan Jackson and I took Maggie and Emily back down to Provo for an official BYU Tour. Oddly enough, I’ve never done one, and it was so fun! We got in our little golf cart and toured a few buildings and the majority of campus grounds. It was especially funny when we would walk past people and they would mumble “I just love being here at BYU” or “There’s no place like BYU” knowing full well that we were on a campus tour. Then we went quickly through the ART museum, over to Katie’s dorm, a quick stop in the BYU bookstore for chocolate covered cinnamon bears and then out to lunch at GURU’s with Ally Cook. Then some shopping at the Riverwoods. Sounds like a perfect day in Provo to me.
Chris, Megan and the boys had a great day of skiing. When we got back we headed downtown Park City to walk along Main Street. We stepped into a few stores and just enjoyed the area.
For dinner we ended up at a Hole in the Wall Pizza joint that could accommodate Luke’s gluten free dairy free diet. He got a pizza with ‘fake cheese’ but it wasn’t great. We are learning. The rest of us ordered great pizzas and then had ordered decadent ice cream at a nearby ice cream parlor. Always fun to hang out with the Jacksons.
WEDNESDAY
Chris, Megan and the boys skied one more morning and then we packed the van and headed down to Provo. It has been SO nice to see the BYU kids so much. Their work is flexible so they’ve been able to be with us a lot in-between classes and in the evenings. We got to my parents house around 2:30 and enjoyed hanging out with my mom for awhile. My Dad was sick with a bad cold so he kept to his room for most of the day to avoid contaminating us — too bad since it was HIS 70TH BIRTHDAY!!! Scott and Elisha and kids came over for Brick Oven Pizza and Salad and then Nate and Grandpa opened up their presents.
Before I left Colorado Springs, I worked on picking and printing pictures for Dad’s 70 poster. Then Emily helped me put it together. When we were at my parents house for Katie’s mission call opening, I put the 70 up on the wall to surprise them when they came home. (They were vacationing with Dan and Sarah in Newport Beach and were unfortunately not there for Katie’s opening — but we still used their house!!) They were both pretty surprised when they saw it!
I sure love my Dad. He’s awesome! Happy 70th!
Wednesday night we ate popcorn and watched Free Solo, the movie about rock climber Alex Honnold and how he climbed El Capitan without ropes. Crazy stuff but super interesting.
THURSDAY
Thursday after Ryan and Katie got out of class, we headed to the Provo City Center Temple to do Baptisms — Luke’s first time. He was pretty excited. We were able to do 48 family name baptisms and confirmations - which is pretty great. So wonderful to be here with my kids, my husband and my mom.
I’m taller than my mom, so then we thought it would be funny to put her up one step.
After the temple we dropped off Katie for a class and headed home long enough to eat ice cream and left over cherry cream cheese pie and then Chris, Ryan, Grandma and I headed up to see Brian’s ‘almost completed’ townhouse in Lehi. He’s done a great job picking everything out and he’s so anxious to move in. So exciting to see it and now be able to picture his new space.
Back at G&G’s house we ate delicious curry soup, played a family game of DARTS, which was pretty fun, and learned a new game of Brian’s.
FRIDAY
Friday we packed our bags and met Ryan and Katie for lunch at ZUPPA’S — one of my favorite Utah restaurants. Then we headed up to Grandma Johnson’s house. Grandma, Katie and I went to the mall and did some fun ‘sister missionary’ shopping and drank Orange Julius smoothies. Then our family headed up to Doug and Missy’s house for a Thailand Reunion with the Brienholts. It was fun to show them the videos Chris put together from our trip — which they loved. Then we watched all of our old trip videos together. So fun!
SATURDAY
We slept in, played games, and Grandma Johnson made us french toast for breakfast. Then we headed out to Grandpa’s grave and left some golf balls. This month marks 3 years that he’s been gone. Miss you Grandpa!
We ate lunch at a place called PULP - which had a variety of things to choose from for Luke’s dietary needs. It was really great. We’ll definitely have to remember this one for next time. After lunch we headed up to Marriott-Slaterville to spend a couple hours with Lindsey. So fun to see her new house and get the tour of everything they’ve done to it so far. It’s going to be amazing! Then we headed south to John and Nikole’s house and left the kids home and went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. (Minus Ryan and Katie who headed back to BYU for a Swing Dance night with their friends) Fun to hang out with just the adults — and Emily. We played Istanbul and Seven Wonders back at the Moon’s place and then went back to Grandma’s house to sleep. Sunday morning we packed the van and headed home. It really was a great week — we packed a lot of great things in there — and so fun to spend so much time with Ryan and Katie. Family time is the BEST.