This year Aubrie and Boston both signed up for a week sport camp in the dorms. Instead of driving back and forth from Park City every day, I decided not to sign Ethan up for a camp that week, and hold off until the next week and sign the older three for the soccer day camp. That saved me a lot of driving, and also gave me time with just Sophia and Ethan. I drove up with the kids on my own Sunday morning. The drive wasn't bad, and I took a new route through the 89 Alternate, which I really enjoyed. We stopped for lunch at a small cafe at Jacobs Lake, a camping area at the top of the mountain that 89 goes through. The service was slow, but it was a nice break. The rest of the drive was nice and smooth, with no traffic, and no stops for gas until Provo. I made it on one tank from Flagstaff till Provo. I couldn't believe it! When I stopped for gas, I picked up a few groceries, and got some fast food for dinner. We arrived in Park City around 8, and enjoyed our lavish hotel/resort. Ben wasn't kidding when he said the place was huge! It had 4 bedrooms, 3 kitchens and 4 bathrooms. We only used two of the bedrooms. Ethan enjoyed having his own area, the first night when Boston was there, but after that he slept with Sophia and I. So basically only one room was used.
Monday morning we headed to Provo to drop Aubrie and Boston off at the dorms. Aubrie was in Chipman Hall this year and Boston was in Taylor. When I was checking Boston in I hear "Rachel?" I look over and there is Ben's cousin Jen with her son. I haven't seen her since before Aubrie was born. Boston and his cousin have never met, and there they were at basketball camp together. After we got the two settled in the dorms, I took them to get some lunch, and then dropped them off for their first workout. I then went to buy more groceries, and then I headed back up to Park City with the kiddos. We spent time in the pool and playing ping pong (their favorite pass time this trip) and spent some time in the arcade.
The following morning (Tuesday) I took the two kids to Boondocks. We got a late start into Salt Lake and I stopped off at Chick-filet for lunch. I ran into an old college friend, and it was great to catch up while the kids played. After lunch, we headed to Boondocks, and lucky for us, Tuesday was wristband day. Which meant that you pay one price and everything was free, except the prize games that give tickets. The kids had a BLAST! Endless go carts, golf, laser tag, etc. Laser Tag became a favorite of Sophia's. It was funny to watch her run around getting people. After a full day there, we headed back to Park City for more swimming and ping pong.
Wednesday we stayed in Park City. Amber was coming up in the afternoon with Olivia, so we took a ride on the sky tram that Sophia was begging to do since the day we arrived. The sky tram took us over the mountain where there was a restaurant, and several hiking trails, a lake for fishing, and ziplining. We didn't have time for the fishing, and Sophia couldn't do the ziplining, so we took a nice hike down from one of the slopes. It took us by the fishing lake, so we could see what it was like for next time. The lake also had paddle boats. Definitely a lot to do up there. The ride on the sky tram was really cool, and we also got to take a lift to the top of the hike. 
We came back and got some lunch, and then headed to the pool to meet Amber. We swam and played ping pong (of course) and then headed back up and made dinner. Amber stayed till about 7 and then she headed home with Olivia. We had fun hanging out at the hotel the rest of the evening.
Thursday we had to check out of the resort and move over to the Marriot. We headed to the pool early, to get one last swim and ping pong session in. We were able to check out late, and left around 1:30 for Provo.
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| Stop at Granny's on the Way! |
I didn't realize that the Marriott had bigger rooms and ended up with a room with two Queens and two chairs (no pull out). So once Aubrie and Boston were back, this became Sophias bed. She actually liked it. Anyway, once we got settled in to the hotel, I ran to get some more groceries, and then we went to the pool after dinner.
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| Sophia's bed at the Marriot! Perfect Size..and she loved it! |
Friday I had to pick up Boston early. He was actually done Thursday night, but he was allowed to stay until Friday morning. That worked best since Aubrie was done then. There were a few hours between the time Boston was done and Aubrie was done, so we headed up to the BYU bookstore to kill some time. We picked Aubrie up around noon, and headed over to Fat Catz. They had summer dollar games again, and also had dollar pizza and drinks. So they got their pizza and I got my Costa Vida, which is connected. Such a brilliant idea, whoever that of that! The three older kids decided to play without bumbers (especially Aubrie and Boston after they took that bowling class for school). Ethan was getting frustrated at first, but then he ended up doing pretty well. Boston was stoked to break 100 for the first time without bumpers! Afterwards. we played some video games in the arcade, which included air hockey. After, we headed back to the hotel for some swimming, and I had to get some laundry done. The kids had a great time at their camps. Boston made friends right off the bat. I could tell he was having fun from the start because he never called, except to tell me one of his friends was Mitt Romney's grandson. Aubrie struggled the first day because she didn't know anyone. The second day I didn't hear from her, and I knew that was a good sign. She made some really good friends, and her Counselor was really cool, and took them to do fun things after their work outs. Aubrie is hoping to see the same girls next year at camp! 
Saturday was a full day. It started off with a hike up to Donut Falls, in Little Cottonwood. The hike was an easy hike, but the parking was awful. It was all backed up and very hard to get a spot. Once we got parked, the hike up was only about a half an hour. The problem was hiking up to the falls. you had to climb up wet slippery rocks to get there. The boys took off on their own and figured their way up, but getting Sophia up there was a chore. I told her she didn't have to go, but she kept changing her mind when she saw her siblings doing it. Then when she would fall or get dirty or wet, she would start crying and wouldn't move. It was about an hour of this, just to get to the top. It was quite rewarding once we got to the top. But then we had the hike down, which had it's own challenges. By the time we got down, Sophia was a basket case, and we were all very dirty. So much so, that Aubrie basically sat in the river to get the dirt off her pants, shoes, and skin. When we got to the car, we all had to take our shoes off and throw them in the back.
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When we got out of the canyon, we stopped at the 7 eleven there, and got some drinks! It was a fun stop for the kids, but we also looked so disheveled. The bad part was that we weren't going home. Our next stop was to Taylorsville for a Fourth of July celebration at the town park. They had food vendors, rides, and a huge firework show lined up. Luckily when we dried up, we didn't look so bad. I didn't have a lot of cash on me, (I left most of it in the car, which we parked a mile away to avoid traffic on the way out) so we had to figure out how to eat dinner and ride the rides. The kids all got about three rides each, except for Sophia. They did get her to go on this, and she was not happy about it!  |
| Sophia not loving this! |
Sunday we met at Amber's church for sacrament, and then we headed up to the Elcocks for Dinner. The kids had a blast, as always with there cousins. They played spider in the basement, played basketball and volleyball outside, and we even made a trip down the street to see this huge pig one of their neighbor has. We took him some watermelon and watched him go to town. He ate the rinds and all.
Time always goes fast when we are there. We left around ten. The kids had an early 8:00 am start for soccer camp the next day!
Monday the kids had camp from 8 to noon. They had fun for their first day, but it was hot. I don't know why I can't remember anything else we did that day:) Oh, we did go to Bridal Veil, and after that we went to Brick Oven. We actually ran into the Livingstones. Sophia thought that was so cool to see Jordan there. After dinner, we headed up to the movies to see Monster's Inc and then we got Ice cream! The next day Ben was coming..we were all excited to see him after 10 days.
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