The BIG Slide

To start our summer right, we spent the very first night of it at the Marriott Mountainside Resort in Park City with the kids. Bridget didn't remember that she's already been on the Alpine Slide, so she had MANY questions for me during the weeks leading up to our trip. Is it possible to crash into another sled on the slide? What if we can't stop? And my very favorite, Should I wear my glasses on the Alpine Slide? (If you've been on the slide and you remember it, that's very funny.)

Bridget came home from her hour and a half at school (why do they even bother with having a last day) and we put our stuff in the car and took off! First stop, Swig! Brian and I are only eating treats and drinking soda on vacation these days, so we got ourselves a Dirty Dr. Pepper. Happiness. (We discovered my night terrors and migraines were closely connected to my sugar being too high right before bedtime. I feel like a new woman since we cut out soda and dessert. You know, because I'm actually sleeping now.)

We checked in to the resort (I told Bridget we had TWO bedrooms and she said, "I'll take one."), then went right to the slide via the chair lift.

Bridget's face. Her shirt says, "There's No Crying in Baseball." There was crying at the Alpine Slide. She was STRESSED. The chair lift slowly climbing the mountain was nothing to her, but sliding down the mountain was UNKNOWN and therefore, terrifying.

I rode with Emil, who is afraid of nothing and no one. Pedal to the metal the entire way down. Brian and Colin rode behind Bridget and she had the brakes on most of the time. I turned back to give her a thumbs up and Isn't-This-Fun Face and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Brian and Colin caught up with Bridget very quickly. 

This is what Emil was doing when our ride was over. Who are we kidding? This is ALWAYS what Emil is doing. I've decided he is going to be an angel teenager because he is very...difficult right now in so many ways.

After the slide, the kids were anxious to get in the pool. This resort has the most amazing swimming pool and hot tubs. Ahhh! I didn't take my camera because it was zone defense.

Bridget's sunburn, right?! On Memorial Day she was at Grandma and Grandpa's all afternoon. I thought she'd be playing and running, so I concentrated the sunscreen on her shoulders and face and neck and the tops of her feet. BUT! She was sick, so she spent the whole time in a lounge chair (she had a skirt swimsuit on), her thighs getting crispy red in the sun. Fail. The swimming at the resort, though, was so fun. Brian and I held on to Emil and Colin and Bridget swam around with us. I liked the hot tubs the best.

We went to Baja Cantina (not so much) for dinner. Emil ran to the bathroom four times and spent the rest of the time on the floor crying (too tired to eat even though he was hungry). Colin ate most of my food and I was delighted because he was eating. The boys and I got a movie for the kids to watch, then Brian and Bridget went back to the pool and I tried to get the boys to go to sleep.

First thing Saturday morning, Brian took the boys to get us The Worst Breakfast in History from Burger King. They hadn't been gone very long when Brian called to tell me that he'd lost Emil. Apparently they'd gotten off the elevator with a few other people and Emil had stayed behind without Brian noticing. The resort is HUGE, the hallways are a maze. It's so confusing that I ran out the door with Bridget to help Brian look for Emil and we ended up walking out the wrong outside door (which locked behind us). Bridget and I had to walk around the whole building without shoes on to get to the lobby. A couple had found Emil on the 9th floor (we were on the 4th floor) wandering the halls, so they brought him down to the lobby with them.

For. The. LOVE.

After "breakfast" we went for a hike while we waited for the Alpine Slide to open. We had to go again now that Bridget knew what was going to happen and she could enjoy herself.

Emil ran off without us and refused to stand still for a picture with his siblings. He wanted to be on the slide, what the HECK were we doing not on the slide.

Emil calls that his Lunch Shirt. Because sandwiches are lunch. Can you see the slide in the background? We could see the slide and the pool from our windows and Emil looked out and yelled, "So fun! So fun!" pointing from one to the other. The kids were not into this hike at all. Colin kept asking, "Almost done?"

This is what Emil did when we were finally getting ready to board the chair lift and go on the slide a second time. We don't even know what this is about.

Now he's happy. Life is nothing but extreme emotions for him right now.

Colin and I sat together on the chair lift, me with a death grip on his arm. "Cheese!"

Picking out a sled to take us down.

Bluebells! So pretty. 

Colin is a great driver.

The guy behind us offered to take our picture. I guess his little girl is in our family now. Move out the way, kid! And for some reason the flash went off. 

Colin was a sweet little boy until Emil handed off the baton for their daily relay of bad attitude. 

We stopped for lunch at Dairy Keen in Heber, thinking the boys would love seeing the little train that runs along the ceiling. We were right about that, but wrong about Colin eating anything. Sometime during lunch, Colin and Emil exchanged attitudes and Emil was Cute As Can Be while Colin screeched at us when we tried to speak to him.

I think I've spent too much time on the hard parts. The boys are pretty high maintenance right now. Thank goodness their loveable-ness is off the charts. It's so sweet, too, to watch Bridget with them and see how much she loves them and wants to keep them safe. She feels very responsible for her brothers. :) In any case - summer has begun and I think we're ready. It's going to be AWESOME.