UTAH!!!!!!! Beware... its a long one.

At the beginning of March, Mom, Dad and I went to Utah to visit Carolyn and Chris in Park City the first week of March. It really has become a yearly thing to go visit them. Every trip is different and awesome in its own way. It was my sixth trip out to visit Utah and it was my parents fifth trip. Although we have all been there so many times it is still something we enjoy to do. It was sad that Sharon was unable to join us, she was busy with teaching and had just went to New Orleans the week before we went. I flew out of Milwaukee while my parents flew from home. We both had short layovers in Denver and ended up getting to Salt Lake just minutes after one another. We landed on Wednesday. Carolyn and Chris both had to work that day but after a day of flying, it was kind of enjoyable to have a relaxing day in their apartment to read books and watch TV on vacation. That night we made No Name Steaks because they are one of Carolyn and Chris's favorites from home which had to be packed along with the snowboard bag. This put the snowboard bag over 50lbs at check in and Dad had to carry one boot around the airport so they didn't have to pay extra. We also made kale chips which I had never had kale and really enjoyed trying something new. Carolyn's friend Jeff came over and we got to chat about nursing because he is working on becoming a nurse just like Holly.

The next day Chris had to work and Carolyn worked a few hours at Starbucks. Carolyn had been awesome again and got us two Gold Passes from her friends at USSA. This is part of the reason we can continue to make trips to visit her. It allows us to get free passes to any resort. Mom, Dad and I spent the day at Park City Mountain Resort. It isn't my favorite resort because it is such a touristy kind of place and is always packed. It snowed that morning for about 2 hours. This picture is proof that Mom was in fresh powder. It was snowing so much you could hardly see and you were covered in snow by the time you got up the chair lift. Mom and Dad both admitted that if the snow would have kept up, it would have been a short day on the mountain. Luckily it stopped snowing around noon and the sun came out just minutes later.

After Carolyn was done at Starbucks, she came to join us. This is one of Mom's favorite parts of PCMR, the town lift. It is something that she does every time we are there. It is a relaxing trip down on the chairlift over looking downtown streets of Park City.

See, look how happy she is and Dad went along for the ride.

After a long day at PCMR, another thing that Mom likes to do is go to the recycling center in Park City. They don't have regular recycling pick up in the city so you have to take it to the recycling center and sort all of it yourself. It is really awesome to see how many people actually do it instead of being lazy. We stopped at Starbucks to get their cardboard that they had from the order they received. Dad was cranky because we had to try to do it in one trip instead of bringing some and coming back for the rest. We all ended up with boxes on our laps.

Surprisingly, the snow started back up while we were at the recycling center. This was Mom and I after we finished sorting plastics. We all got to do our part for the planet!

That night we went to Maxwell's for pizza. It has become one of Carolyn and Chris's favorite Pizza places in town. They have New York style pizza. I think her favorite is still Broadway Pizza back at home though.

After pizza we went to watch Chris play hockey. He plays in a league on Thursday nights. They are no professionals but it was still fun to watch. It made me want to play. Here Chris's cheering squad.

And here is Chris, #99. His team lost and Chris didn't score any goals but he had a few shots on goal and played a lot better than some other guys on his team. Mom and Carolyn really like to watch the woman on his team that is 70 years old. Mom should try and play.

The next day, Carolyn and Chris had the day off of work. We decided to get out of town and go up to Powder Mountain Resort which has become one of all of our favorite resorts. It is about a hour and a half drive away but it totally worth it every time. We got a later start on the mountain than we normally do because we got about half the way there and forgot the Gold Passes. We turned around to go get them because it would save us over $100 in lift ticket prices. Mom really enjoys the scenery there and has plenty of green runs for her that are not packed with little tourist kids like at PCMR. One reason it has become her favorite is because there is a creek running along one of the runs. It wasn't very visible this time because it was earlier in the year than in the past. She still liked it and spent most of the day with dad.

Carolyn, Chris and I went off on a different part of the mountain. It involved a little bit of a hike but was so worth it. We got to get some fresh powder, even two days after it snowed. The hike is not completely up hill and has some down sections. Not enough to complete put on your board but enough to go sledding. In order to stop you need to use your feet but then you get snow all over. For example, Chris got his beard covered in snow and looks like old man winter. 

Fresh powder is the best part of being on the mountains and totally makes any hike worth it. Carolyn hidden in the trees in this picture. That night we came home to french dip sandwiches made in the crock pot. It was something we all liked and made it enjoyable to come home to dinner already made.

The next day, we went to ___ Canyons resort. No longer containing the word "the" in its title. I was most excited for this because it is one of my favorite resorts and has made a lot of great changes to improve the resort. Carolyn started the morning snow reporting and we met up with her around lunch. We started the morning on the Orange Bubble Express lift. It has a orange bubble that you can pull down to avoid the cold and get a break from your goggles. It also has heating elements that warm your seat once you sit down.

It was awesome to have Chris along because he explained how everything works. He was like our own tour guide on the mountain.

After lunch Carolyn went on some runs with Mom and Chris and I took Dad on some more Challenging runs. It turned out to be a little too much of a change for Dad. He fell a few times on some steeper sections. Turned out we wore him out pretty quickly. We met back up with Carolyn and Mom to give Dad a rest.

Carolyn, Chris and I went off on our own for a bit. We went to an entirely new section of the mountain that just opened this year. It was called the Iron Mountain Area. A lot of fun to be on a entirely new area of the mountain. I also got to do some of the natural half pipes that are my favorite at Canyons. It is a true test to your snowboarding abilities.

After we were done for the day, we found Mom and Dad on the beach. It is the bottom of the mountain were they have some beach chairs out. Kind of a relaxing way to end your day. It was something that I noticed most about the changes. People were hanging around the resort, having drinks, socializing and listening to music. The changes that they made, changed the entire atmosphere of the resort after a day of skiing. Normally people just want to leave and now they want to hang around and have a good time. For dinner that night we went to Squatters for dinner. I got to have some of the local beers that I enjoy from previous trips. We went with Carolyn's friend Irene and her boyfriend.

The next day Chris worked. The rest of us went for a hike in the Unita Mountains. It was something we did last year and had fun except we went after a long day on the mountain. This time we went for a day by itself. Mom and Dad had snow shoes and Carolyn and I had cross country skis. We ended up parking in the wrong spot and Dad had already put his snow shoes on. We shoved him in the trunk for the short drive to the right trail head.

On the hike, Mom and Dad did really well with their snow shoes. Carolyn had a bit of work with her CC skis. I was awful with my CC skis. They were Chris's skis and didn't have enough wax on them. It made going up hill, which our whole trail ended up being, nearly impossible. I would move 20 inches forward only to slide 15 inches backwards. By the time I finally caught up to them, I WAS CRANKY!!

The whole trail we were on was up hill, which is lots of work for those not living in elevation. The reason we chose it was because it was supposed to go past a old miners cabin. The map we had was outdated and didn't provide a location of the cabin, so we just kept hiking. Eventually we would it. Not much left of it and was very hard to see because it was covered with snow. This is how deep the snow was. Mom has one pole out of the snow and the other is not even touching the bottom of it. She is standing right next to what would be the door frame to the cabin. The roof hand all caved in and you could only see some of the wood left from the cabin.

We hike a little more and found our spot for lunch. We carried in a few sandwiches and snacks and found this tree to sit on. Again another thing we had never done before on one of our trips.

 

This is the final point we got to on our hike. We never made it to our final destination and kind of glad because the map really never had it ending. We would have kept going for a very, very, long time. Mom was getting pretty tired and was ready to be done so we turned around. Going down wasn't as easy as I expected. I thought skis would have an advantage but there was really no way to stop yourself on cross country skis. Carolyn and I fell a lot and couldn't figure out any better way to go about going down other than taking off our skis. Having CC skis was pointless for me on the entire hike.

 

After the hike we had dinner at home and had Carolyn's friend Nancye over for dinner. Carolyn and Chris had been watching her cat Callie and as payment for watching Callie, Carolyn asked Nancye to bring Lefsa back from her trip to Norway. It was very good lefsa and reminded me a lot of grandma. 

The next day we all flew out. Mom and Dad's flight left four hours before mine but we both had layover in Denver. The weather got worse in Salt Lake and my flight left 50 minutes late which was the same length of my layover in Denver. I had to RUN through the Denver airport to make my flight home. I made it but it was really close. I was glad because I didn't want to spend the night in Denver. It was sad to leave Carolyn because now that I live in Milwaukee, I only get to see her a few times a year. I was really glad we went to visit her and spend time with Mom and Dad too. Thank you Mom and Dad for the trip and thank you Carolyn and Chris for your hospitality. I had a great time with everyone. Thanks Again!!!