Spring Break Wrap-up

A little background before I begin...
Last fall we went on a mini family vacation to Park City. We had decided where to stay. It was a family friendly hotel with an indoor pool. As part of our vacation we wanted to go to the Alpine Slides. Then Darin found a condo in Park City that was the same price as the hotel, but included 4 Alpine Slide tickets. We decided it would be the financially smart thing to do to stay at the condo. We arrived after dinner and headed straight for the pool. Even though it was an outdoor pool and it was cold, the kids had a blast. We went inside to take baths and settle in for the night. There was only one problem...there was no hot water in the condo. On further inspection we found that several lamps didn't work, the fireplace wouldn't turn on, and the heater didn't work. We called the front desk and they said the maintenance guy had just gone home, but we could call the after hours guy if we felt it was necessary. It was 10:00pm at this point and they said it would take the maintenance guy an hour to arrive. We decided to bundle up, go to sleep chlorine-filled, and call first thing in the morning. We did call in the morning and they said they would send someone over right away. I took the kids to the pool while Darin waited. We returned from the pool and still no hot water, etc. We called again (at this point it was almost time to check out). They told us we could have an extra two hours to stay for our inconvenience. They again said that someone would be right over. Two and a half hours passed and we gave up. We packed up and prepared for our Alpine Slide adventure. We (along with a thick layer of slime from two pool outings) checked out. Darin mentioned all that had happened, and received a luke warm "Sorry". When we arrived at the Alpine Slides we were pleased that there wasn't a very big crowd. There was a reason for this. The Alpine Slides were CLOSED FOR THE SEASON!!! We hadn't looked very closely at our tickets, but sure enough the tickets had expired a week before. We decided to head home since we were more than ready to be clean. A couple of days passed and it was still bothering me quite a bit so I made a phone call. I asked for the manager and told him about our frustrations. I was sure to speak in a pleasant tone of voice and not get angry (you really do capture more bees with honey!). He apologized and said he would re-imburse us for the cost of the Alpine Slide tickets. I was grateful, but pressed a little further. At the end of the conversation he said, "We'd love for you to give us another chance. How about a free night's stay?" I replied that we would be willing to give them another chance and thanked him. I took down his name and filed the paperwork away. (That was a really long background.)
(Background complete)
Anyway, as I was going through some papers I found the paper with the manager's name on it and decided it was worth a shot to call since we didn't have definite plans and were searching for something exciting to do for the rest of our Spring Break. Darin called and the manager said there was room that night! The kids were thrilled! We arrived early this time and checked the condo to make sure everything worked. Hot water, heater, oven, stove, microwave, lamps, lights, fireplace, etc. We were good to go! The pool was closed (which was probably o.k.--it was freezing), but the hot tub was open.





When I first saw the photo below on the camera I thought my swimsuit strap was Sean's hair and I wondered how it stuck up that high. It still makes me chuckle to look at it. The angle of his head and his expression fit perfectly!


Since the hot tub (which was about bath water temperature) was quite small we decided to make things exciting by becoming members of the Polar Bear Club. I even participated, but the proof may have been accidentally erased.


**funny little side note. Every time someone wanted to roll in the snow and come back we had to open the gate with the key and someone had to stand by the gate to let the polar bear back in. As we were leaving Olivia noticed a large grassy/snowy patch INSIDE the pool area. We had a good laugh at ourselves.

After a good swim we went inside for warm showers and baths, played board games, had dinner, then settled in to watch a movie.
The next morning the kids watched t.v. for a little bit, then we packed up and headed for home to have brunch with Grandma and get ready for David's birthday (which was the next day).

At the moment I was walking out the condo door my cell phone rang. It was the Johnson's. They said that they had planned a getaway with some friends and the friends had to cancel due to a family emergency. There was an opening at a hotel in Park City for that evening! I had to laugh at the irony. We were on our way to check out from our Park City adventure and now had the chance to have another Park City adventure! My initial reaction was to decline since we had birthday preparations and unpacking to attend to. I did decline and hung up the phone. As I discussed with Darin we decided it would be well worth the effort to prepare for another mini-trip. I called back and told them we would love to come. We headed home, picked up Darin's mom and went to brunch.
After brunch I took MaryEllen shopping with Olivia while the boys cleaned out the car, exchanged dirty clothes for clean clothes, and re-packed. Liv helped Grandma buy groceries while I bought David's presents. We loaded back in the car and hit the road again! Fortunately all the kids were very tired, so they slept almost the whole way there (except Liv. She just listened to the iPod).
We arrived again in Park City, settled into the hotel, had dinner, then hit the pool. It was perfect. The kids (the little ones and the grown-up ones) had a great time playing keep away. The dads got a great workout launching the kids in the air. I mostly hung out with David on the stairs. He had a great time running back and forth.
We found a shark mask poolside and the kids tried it on.

Warren

David

After swimming we cleaned up and watched Bedtime Stories. The kids headed to bed and the adults played states and capitals Sequence (which I accidentally won. I haphazardly and apologetically placed a chip, stating that I wished I had a better place to put it and it completed the sequence! I think I was tired).
The next morning (David's birthday) Darin left to help his family clean out his mom's garage and left us to play. The power went out after lunch, which was detrimental to my plan for naps (the kids had been happily and drowsily watching cartoons after a morning of more vigorous swimming). Instead of naps we went to the playground, played games in the tennis courts, and played ping pong. Some face (and body) painters showed up, much to the kids' delight. Since there wasn't a very big crowd the kids got back in line a couple of times.

Liv was done being photographed, but the boys still wanted to show off their fierceness:

Darin returned (Darin made a total of 6 trips between Park City and Utah county) we packed up and headed home to begin David's birthday celebration. We had an amazing Spring Break!