Labor Day!

Last Sunday night we drove to Park City to stay with Jaime and Tyler for an action-packed day on Labor Day...  Don't you love staying in a hotel?  I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever as a kid, and I still love it.  We stayed at the Best Western, which was the most amazing deal.  We had an Alpine Slide package which included our night's stay, 4 Alpine Slide tickets, and a ginormous breakfast, which for our family equals a LOT of food, for about $100.  Can't beat it.  The best part about the hotel was that it was nice, but not too nice, and we didn't feel like we were bugging the other guests with our mostly well-behaved, but pretty much normal, happy kids.  In fact, people were downright nice to us.  It was fabulous.

Lounging around watching TV.  Catching up on all the cartoons that we don't have anymore.

The luggage rack was a favorite.

The boys took Harper for rides.

So, first thing Monday morning, we played on the luggage cart.  THEN, we drove over to the new Trailside downhill mountain bike park, about 5 minutes from our hotel.  It was totally amazing.  I haven't seen Jason that excited about riding his bike in a long time.  I think it rekindled his love of biking.  And the kids?  Oh, they were in heaven too.  They rocked the pump track, and Bennett even rode the big hill.  (SCARY.)

Oh, yes.  And there is a skate park just next door, which they also loved.

A direct quote from Bennett as I was taking this photo:  "Oh, yeah, I am FEELIN' it!"  Ha ha ha!

Pivot bike company happened to be there demo-ing big, $7000 downhill bikes, so of course these boys were all over that.

Jason, Bennett, Tyler, and Kirk Earl, who met us at the park.

You might think that would be enough fun for one day.  But you would be wrong.  Because we drove to  the Park City Mountain Resort to redeem our Alpine Slide tickets, only to find that there was a 2-hour line to do so.  Yeah right.  We left.  And went to Heber to see the Sheepdog Championship Finals at Soldier Hollow!  Seriously so cool.  I loved it.  I didn't love how much money we spent there on stupid fair-style food, and my kids whining for $4 snowcones all day.  But the events themselves were spectacular.  Here are the boys watching the water dogs competition.  We got to see the winning jump- 26 feet, 4 inches.  Holy toledo.  That is a long jump.  Good job, Luke the dog from Kamas, Utah!

And then there was a wild-animal show where the kids got to pet a skunk, Sugar Gliders and other exotic creatures like this baby tortoise:

Somehow I didn't end up with any photos of the actual sheep dog portion of the show, but it was absolutely amazing. People were there from all over the world with their trusty dogs.  Cute little old men from Scotland and all over, wearing their nice tweed jackets and sporty hats, holding canes, and whistling to their dogs, commanding them to move herds of sheep through narrow gates, separate the herd, regroup the herd, always moving in clockwise fashion, never barking.  Truly cool.  And pretty much any event that involves bagpipes at the closing ceremonies gets my vote.

And you might think that would be enough fun for one day.  But you would be wrong again.  Because then we went BACK to the Alpine Slides and found them completely empty.  After eating a nutritious meal from Burger King (hey, they have veggie burgers, alright?) we watched Blue while Jaime and Tyler took Porter down.  Then they watched Harper while we took the boys down.

Oh, my seriously cute girl.

Tyler and Porter came FLYING down the hill.  FAST!

Cute couple.

Porter loves his mama, but not enough to ride with her.  He knew his Dad would be lots faster.

The ride up the hill.

Jason and Tyler prepare to race.

And it is at this point that our trip took its only bad turn.  When we got to the top of the slide, it was starting to lightly sprinkle.  The worker girl told us that if it started raining any harder we would have to get off the track immediately and walk down or we would die.  Bennett and Owen were already nervous to ride by themselves, so this made it worse.  But what made it much, MUCH worse, was that I was riding behind them with Jake, and I was trying to get them to hurry, hurry, hurry down the hill to beat the rain.  They were going so painfully slow, I can't even tell you.  I thought it was because they were scared, but it turns out it was because they didn't have the body weight to make them go faster.  So I was back there shouting at them to go faster, and they were getting more tense and upset, and by the time we reached the bottom, Bennett was in tears, and I had ruined the entire event.  I seriously felt like such a loser Mom.  I couldn't get over it.  Even typing this now I am feeling so back that I made them feel so bad about something that should have been fun.  I promised them a do-over, and they are over it, but I still feel horrible.

But here, they snapped out of their sadness soon after.  Me, well, I'm not so quick to recover.  

The LandCruiser rocks once again.  Look at this thing!!!  It rules.

Thanks, Jaime and Tyler.  You've done it again. Y'all know how to party.