We drove up on Wednesday, July 6th in the afternoon. We had had a long morning, (Paul played in a work tennis tournament, and I had gone to the gym to work out), so We put Jace down for a nap, Paul napped and watched tennis, and I took an hour or so to just relax and color. I got an adult coloring book for Easter, and have only had time to use it once! It was really nice to just do nothing for a little bit and feel okay with it. That afternoon we took Jace to the pool to play for a little bit, with his two cousins Sage and Milo, then we came back and left Jace with Grandpa for just a little bit while Paul, Julie (my mother-in-law), and I went to the adult spa and sat in the hot tub for a bit. After that we had dinner and some games, and went to bed.
Thursday we got up early (well not really) to go on a hike. Paul, Jace, Julie, and Paul's brother Eric planned to hike the Peruvial Gulch Trail to the summit then ride the Tram back down. Mom said it wouldn't be that hard, and it was only like 4 miles so we figured we could do it no problem. But holy cow was it more challenging than we expected!! Paul and Mom were champs for carrying Jace as much as they did. He was his stubborn little self and wanted to walk half the time, or be held in Paul's arms rather than in the back pack.
We took quite a few stops to get him situated and comfortable, and lets be honest, to rest, because boy were we tired. Jace somehow got ahold of, and figured out how to use the bite valve on one of our water bladders and pretty much downed almost 2 liters of water himself! When we had about a mile left, Paul suddenly asked me if the water was leaking because he felt like he was getting dripped on. I looked at his pack and said no, and even if it was, the drips he felt were coming from the wrong side of the pack. We quickly found out that Jace, because he had been guzzling water had peed through his diaper and it was totally dripping all over Paul. I totally tried not to laugh, but it was kind of a funny situation. We found a place to somewhat pull over and did a quick, diaper change for Jace. Imagine when your kid gets into a swimming pool with a regular diaper on, then gets out. Thats how big and swollen with liquid his diaper was. It was massive! Poor kid had wet britches too but, they dried off pretty fast after we changed him because he didn't want to sit in the pack anymore. We told Jace he could hike as long as he wanted to, but when he was tired he needed to let us put him back in the pack. He ended up hiking the rest of the way to the tram. Pretty sure his motivation was to get to the "Flying Bus Stop." We had seen the tram pass over us multiple times and every time we saw it Jace would get so so excited, and so determined that he had to keep going to get himself on that neato flying bus.
We made it to the top, with Jace hiking the whole rest of the way, looked around and snapped some pictures, then caught the next tram back down to the lodge. We were all tired and starving for lunch, and surprise, surprise, Jace had another super soggy diaper that needed changing. We had some lunch and tried to put Jace down for a nap. Eric wanted to lay down, so he volunteered to lay down with Jace and his cousin Ember so they could hopefully nap, and the rest of us hikers could go soak in the hot tub and stretch out our muscles.
One of the many stops we had along the way. I told Paul he had to smile because when we got to the end of the hike, we may not be smiling anymore!
Jace was not having it most of the hike. He likes to be independent, and needing to be strapped to the back of Dad was not on his list of things he wanted to do today.
Thank goodness for selfie sticks! We were able to get a snap of all of us and even a little bit of the background. Notice Jace being a punk. He refused to smile or even look towards the camera.
Again, here we are, at our first major stop during the hike.
I was trying to be sneaky and get in a good picture of Jace, but yet again, we refused to comply.
On the trail! It looks like its super hot outside, but it was actually really decent. So grateful for the altitude because if we were lower, and the weather was warmer, I might have died!
We are still happy (ish) to be here!
So... we basically hiked up along that ridge. Jace hiked by himself for most of it. I was so proud of him.
There he is, up and away with Grandma.
We made it to the top!
I think Snowbird is pretty in the winter, but it sure looks gorgeous in the summer time as well. Its crazy to think that I snowboard down all of that terrain. It looks so different and naked without snow!
Yay for selfies at the top!
I tried to be silly so Jace would smile. Totally didn't work. He deliberately looked away from the camera. Silly goober!
Jace and Dad looking over the edge.
We had to take a picture together to show that all five of us made it to the top.
This was taken on the tram (in the flying bus), on the way down. Jace really was more excited than the picture shows.
He thought the flying bus was theee coolest thing ever. Once we got off, he immediately wanted to ride it again.
We got back an hour later and the babes were still awake!! I couldn't believe it! Jace is usually pretty good at napping and pretty set on a schedule, but him and Ember had their pack-n-plays right next to each other so they were just chatting up a storm. Mom and Dad volunteered to watch the kids at that point so that us adult kids could play a game together. They took all the littlies to the other unit while we played a game before dinner. Somehow Grandma had the magic touch and was able to get Jace and Ember and Milo to fall asleep. Go Grandma!! We adults played our game, and when it got time for dinner, cooked dinner while we played our game, then took a break to eat, then finished our game. It was a pretty intense and long game. Bless Grandma and Grandpa for being willing to watch 4 kids for 4+ hours so we could have a little time together as a family. After that game was over, we got all ready for bed and had a great snooze.
Friday we had scheduled to use our Snowbird activity passes. During the summer they have several attractions like an alpine slide, and rock climbing, and a mountain coaster; those types of things. But before we did that, we played some pickleball down at the courts. Paul and I tried to teach Julie and Eric how to play. We played pretty good together until Jace was having a meltdown and I needed to take him inside. Anyway, back to the activity passes, being pregnant meant that I didn't get to do any of it. But while Paul was off having lots of fun with his mom and brother, I took Jace around to do some of the things he could do. He loved the bouncy house. Which was actually a big deal! Jace doesn't like trampolines, and pretty much cries when he is jumping on them unless mom or dad is holding him or his hand. But he went onto that bouncy house and jumped for literally 15 minutes all by him self, with no problems!! Then we had to go back and do it again 2 more times!! I was totally okay with it though. I am hoping this means he isn't terrified of trampolines any more. Guess we will find out. Jace also got to ride on the Alpine slide. We read the rules at the bottom of the lift to take you up and no where did is say that Jace needed to be a specific age. Low and behold at the top, after Paul has waited in line for 30 minutes they say he has to be three. But the lady said, just tell me that he is three and I will let you take him. He really enjoyed coming down the alpine slide. I think that if he had been three, Paul would have taken him at least 2 more times.
That evening we took a tram ride to the top. Jace was in heaven getting to ride the flying bus again. We got to the top, looked around, let the little kids run around and be curious for a bit, then caught the tram down for dinner. Oh, and can't forget that Paul and I caught a few cool Pokemon at the top. ;) We have been somewhat playing Pokemon Go (it just came out this week while we've been at Snowbird). Once we got to the bottom of the tram we decided to let the little kids (Jace, Sage, Milo), do one more activity before their day pass expired. Jace, of course wanted to jump in the bounce house. After our fun, we came back to the condo and had dinner. Paul's other two siblings came up for dinner as well. Jonathan didn't bring Shawnee, but both Peter and Jessica came up and planned to spend the night. After dinner the boys a game together while us girls played a game, and had some girl time before bed.
Jace and Dad are getting on the ski lift to go up to the alpine slide
There they go! Jace was actually kind of smiling! Not at the camera, but hey, its a start!
They had so much fun coming down the big slide together! If Jace was actually 3 like he was supposed to be to ride it, they would have gone down that thing at least a dozen times I bet.
Jace's other all time favorite was the bouncy house. He would just jump in there for ever if I let him!
Paul did the mountain glider thingy. They had some weird restrictions for it though. Because he was over a specific weight he couldn't ride it alone, but he also had to ride with someone small enough to not put them over the max weight limit. So he got to ride with our cute nephew Milo. He is sort of hiding behind Paul, but they had a blast riding it.
After a long day of playing, Mom is crashed out on the chair!
We had to wake Jace up from his nap to go ride the tram to the top. He wasn't super happy about getting woken up, but the words "flying bus" got him up and moving a lot faster and happier than I expected.
And here we have a Pokemon trainer. He is off on a mission to catch some good Pokemon at the top of the tram (if he has service and internet to do so)
I tricked him into turning to look at the camera. Its not a smile, but hey, he is actually looking at the camera!
A better looking picture than when we came up yesterday on our hike. Well, in the sense that we don't look like hot and sweaty bums.
Me still trying to get a smiling picture of Jace and still failing
I almost got a smile here. He is thinking about it.
The whole fam, and of course Jace is being a booger. But thats okay. We love him anyway.
Jace took this picture. I actually think it turned out pretty good. For a two year old, he did a great job.
Jace also took this picture of his cousins.
Saturday morning was check out, so of course everyone is in a mad frenzy to get all of the cleaning and packing done. Before all that cleaning and packing, I had asked Jess if she would take a few maternity pictures for me. We woke up early, got ready and headed out. We didn't get all the amazingly awesome pictures I thought I wanted, but we got some good ones. Jace was being a stink face, so most of the pictures with him in them, show his little attitude for the day. Once pictures were done, we basically headed home and helped clean up any other little thing that we needed to before we left to come home.
Maternity selfie. One of the first times I curled my short hair. I don't really feel the need to caption all the other pictures, so just glance through them and see how awesome Jessica did her first time taking maternity pictures! I'm so glad she wanted to practice on us. Also notice how grumpy Jace was. We had to bribe him with cookies and all sorts of things, and even still he wasn't super cooperative. Thats okay though. This is showing real life right here!
We had so much fun with family, but boy was it sure nice to have Jace in his own bed, and for Paul and I to come home and sleep in our very own bed!
