Sundance

This mini-vacay was totally, totally amazing.  I had never given Sundance Resort a second thought.  In my head it was the land of richy-rich, and I really didn't care about checking it out. But then we had the opportunity to go, and I discovered I had been wrong all along.  Ooooohhhhhh, how wrong I was!  Sundance just became a destination for our family and even made us consider moving to Utah County!  (But only for a minute.)  It really is amazing, totally family friendly, with stunningly beautiful scenery and amazing food and accommodations.  And, while I didn't experience it, they have a really cool artisan gig going on up there with painting and jewelry making and glass-blowing classes.  In short, it felt like we were living in a Sundance catalog for the weekend.  Except for Harper screaming all night the first night.  That part I could do without.

Bennett serenaded us on the way there.  And all day every day we were there.

Walking to dinner.  Oh my goodness, this place is magically beautiful.  We were there just after a nice snowstorm, so everything was so fresh and beautiful.

Jason and the kids all enjoyed the mussels.  

It was snowing a little on our way back to our cabin.

Plenty of icicles for all.

Jason went out for a powder run first thing in the morning.  He came back for the kids, and they had a great day on the mountain.

Harper, Finn, and I had a lovely day, strolling around, browsing the shops, eating amazing food, and napping.  We walked over to the lift to see the boys.

Here come Bennett, Owen, and Jake.

This has been an awesome year for Jake.  He switched to snowboarding from skiing, and he is doing awesome!

Our condo/cabin thing was so amazing.  I want to live there.

I know that if we ever build a house, I want a sunken area somewhere, because those stairs served as a perfect stage for the kids all weekend.  There was much dancing and singing going on.  Non-stop performances.

We left Sunday morning, early enough to be home for church.  Everyone was a little tired, but  also pretty rejuventated.

Yay for good family time!  We can't wait for next year!  Maybe one of these years we will all be skiing, and we won't even have a baby screaming all night...  Maybe.

Big day in the City of Salt!

We had the extreme honor of being invited to the temple wedding of Mr. Bo Reier, and his darling bride, Allina.  Just to put in perspective how special this day was for me...  I taught Bo in 2nd grade at the Cache Valley Learning Center.  Yes, that's right.  He's now home from a mission, and married.  So that makes me old!  He is such a sweet and handsome boy.  Bo's mom, Shelly, and I taught together for a few years, and we all just became such great friends.  Shelly now lives in California, and life has brought many changes for her and her family.  How happy I was to see her here.  It had been faaarrrrrr too long.  Shelly had never met Finn or Harper.  :(  So it was an event.  I mean, okay, the wedding was an event too.  Ha ha!  But the reunion for me was so sweet.  Here are the bride and groom!

Hello, Cinderella!!!!  And then Bo's first congratulatory hug came from his mama, of course. That's how it should be, right?

And all the kids joined in...

In between the wedding and the reception, we spent some time at the Church History Museum's children's exhibit with Jules and his kids.  It was pretty fun.  

The very best part was this.  Harper really wanted to wear one of the Latin-inspired skirts that are clearly made for bigger girls.  So I tied it around her neck, and she was so happy.  You can't tell from this picture, but she LOVED it, and wouldn't let me take it off her.  She was very serious about it, and twirled around with a very intent look on her face.  Hilarious!  There are video monitors that teach the kids traditional Mexican dances, and she and her cousins were dancing machines!

Finn was feeling the music!

Love it!  Nikolas, Finn, and Jake.

After a very disappointing dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, we went to the GRAND (fancy pants) for Bo's reception.  First we had to stop at the fabulous toy shop inside the hotel.  I don't think there is anything available for under $200 there, but it was fun to look!!!  This wall of monsters was kind of interactive and motion-activate.  Harper and Finn were fascinated.

They were having so much fun...

Inside the reception, we ate and ate and ate... Here's Bennett with his mashed potato creation:

And the last picture of Harper before her big meltdown...

Handsome, handsome boys...

Owen, Bennett, Max and Finn.

My dearest Shelly, who I miss so much...

The Reiers were at our wedding (Matt was our photographer!), and Bo and Caiti danced around all night.  It was surreal to attend Bo's own wedding!  What a privilege.  What amazing friends the Reiers have been for so many, many years.

Field Trip

Grades K-4 at Bear River Charter School do science in part through the Stokes Nature Center.  It seems to be a great program, and the kids love it.  They occasionally do field trips, and this is one they took to the Denzil Stewart Nature Park.  It was supposed to be a snowshoeing activity, but, well, there is no snow this year!  Here they are playing the habitat game.  It was fun to sit in on their lesson about how animals survive winters here in Cache Valley and the surrounding mountains.  I mostly just love watching Owen interact with his classmates, though.  He is such a nice boy!

Harper mostly just wanted to look at the water.  All day.

On my honor.

I LOVE watching my boys participate in scouts.  I really am a lousy scout mom, total slacker when it comes to passing stuff off with them.  BUT, his scout leaders are not slackers.  They are wonderful, and I appreciate them so much.

Bennett and some scouting friends...

Ky Strickland, Sam Anderson & Salvador Landaverde.

Here's Bennett and one of his best friends, Bridger, being advanced to Webelos!  He's moving right along.  Somehow.  Because I'm sure not very helpful!

I now have 2 cub scouts.  Owen has been so excited about scouts.  He even missed a trip to his cousins' house so that he could attend a car-building workshop at Lowe's.  He is dedicated to this thing.

Sidenote:  Dang, they're handsome.

Moab, baby.

So.  We like to stop at In-N-Out any chance we get.  It's a great way to kick off any vacation, right?  The drive to Moab seemed to take extra long this time.  I don't know what happened, but we didn't get into our hotel until midnight or so, and then Harper woke up screaming, "Wanna go HOOOOOOME," for about 3 hours.  So it was pretty restful.

We were in Moab because Jason was running the Red Hot 55k on Saturday.  He got up and left early, and the kids of course woke up when he left, so then we decided to check out the town.  We stopped in to see Christie at the Love Muffin first thing, and then hit the city park.

And then we drove into Arches to do some hiking before heading over to meet Jason at the finish line.  Raise your hand if you love Arches.  We do!  We do!

My kids are awesome hikers, and for that I am grateful.  We just went on very short hike/walks that Finn could do with us.  He was a trooper.  Here we are at the North and South Windows.

North Window:

Harper did NOT enjoy being confined to the backpack.  At all.  But she survived.

Owen at the South Window:

 A highlight for everyone was lizard chasing.  I wish I could say we caught one, but we did not.  We were too slow.

We probably had 6 different people stop and comment on our awesome tailgate party.  The Lamberts know how to party!  This is just another adventure in the best car ever.

Beautiful La Sal mountains in the background.  It was a glorious day.

Posing by Balanced Rock, or Snoopy Rock as the boys call it.

We then headed up Potash Road to the Poison Spider trailhead to watch for Jason.  The kids had a grand time climbing around while we waited.

Finish lines are so awesome.  Jason was pretty tired, and so glad to see the kiddies!

They all ran with him to the finish line.  Harper and I tried to keep up...

Happy to be done!

Harper sure likes her Daddy.  Even when he's super sweaty.

This sand hill is located just across the street from the entrance to Arches.  When we were leaving the park earlier in the day, we saw people running up and down it, and the kids were dying to try it.  It was getting a little too cold for my liking, but the kids of course loved it!

On Sunday morning we got up and went to the Moab 1st Ward.  We were just a few of the gazillion visitors they had that day.  Harper and I went to nursery and met some really nice people there.  The nursery leader is a gorgeous, young-looking interior designer and mother of 12 children!!!!!  Needless to say, I was impressed, and had many questions for her.  She was amazing, and I am so glad I was able to meet her that day.  It was the first time ever that I felt our family was small.  :)

After church, we packed up and drove to Arches again for a beautiful, short hike called Sand Dune Arch.  It had snowed the night before, and everything looked so magical.  It's times like these in the great outdoors that our kids all get along and enjoy each other, and I think it is pretty heavenly.

Harper loved the red rock and slot canyons.

Red rock in the winter is just spectacular.  I highly recommend it.  For one thing, you have the entire park to yourself!  And for another- it is magical.  

The sun started to break out way out in the west through the clouds as we drove away.

We didn't spend a ton of time in the hotel, but it really was nice.  We had 3 queen beds, and it made all the difference.  Usually we have kids camped out all over the place, so it was really quite lovely for all of us to have a bed!

Monday was our last day.  We spent some quality time at the skate park and the rock shop before heading out for the final adventure.  Our last hike of the trip was not inside Arches.  It's called Corona Arch, located about 10 miles up Potash Road.  It was such a fun hike with the kids, and we can't wait to bring people to check it out.  Grandma and Grandpa Olsen are going to LOVE it!  Any time there are cables, chains and ladders involved in a hike, you know it's going to be an adventure...

The arch itself is stunning!

Harper was super bummed to have to get back in the small prison.  Soon enough you'll be hiking all over with us, little sis.

Descending...

Hold on, Finn!

Truly the perfect getaway!  It was just what everyone needed.  Some time away from the hustle and bustle of after-school activity, meetings, homework, laundry, and all the day to day.  We are trying to focus on creating more times like that for our family.  Even though the kids fight like crazy in the car, once we start on the outdoor adventuring they are magically best friends again.  Not to be a crazy hippy, but I do believe the great outdoors has healing powers.  Gosh, maybe we do belong in Moab, talking like that.  I'll buy some crystals and do some yoga on a rock formation somewhere while I'm at it.