I am back!!

Woohoo- yaah -alriiiiiight. I am officially back on the Internet because my hiatus in Utah is over. It was busy, fun,tiring, sweet, exhausting, terrifying,great, nice, tiring, crazy,interesting, and - did I mention tiring? Oh yeah- I guess that's brand of vacation I was on. "Family and Friends Visiting Vacation With Children in Tow." We saw fireworks, a moose, a belly dancer in a parade, nature, and lost Dane in the Chicago Airport. Complete with a fantastic finale of a barfing child (umm, yeah- that was Dane) on our last walk down the airplane aisle out.

Lots was seen, lots was done, and and now I am doing lots of recovery to our home after it's had 2 full weeks of my husband regressing to "bachelor pad" status with it. (His words to me earlier, "It's exactly like we left it, only a little better.")- WHAAA?? I am finding that THAT means things like counter tops MAYBE got wiped down once...hopefully with water? I heard from my sister who stopped in once during my absence that he was leaving all the food that he liked out on the kitchen island "because it saves dishes" . And all FOUR of our frying pans were dirty in the sink. FOUR? I forgot we HAD four. For ONE person? But- no- there really weren't a lot of dishes. Just the pans things were cooked in. SO I am left to assume he either 1.) Ate food straight out of the pan. or 2.) Held the food in his hands in a cave-man like manner and just snarfed it up. The floors and counters were my biggest complaint by far... I just want to dip everything in some sort of wood floor appropriate bleach solution. Just so dirty. Or maybe I just FORGOT how dirty we are willing to live? Maybe I just needed a little kick in the rear to get me back on track. NO worries there. I am planning on quitting my part time job so I can spend more time CLEANING. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY. FOR A LONG TIME. REALLY.

But that doesn't really tell you much about my trip does it? That's more just where I am right now. Sifting through suitcases overflowing with things I forgot I bought in a fit of memorabilia excitement. And several pairs of to-die-for designer jeans that I got for 7 and 10 bucks a pair at Down EAST. We're talkin about Chip and Pepper, paper denim &cloth- and the like. Oh yeah. SWEETNESS.

So here's the lowdown.

We had a family reunion at probably on of the best resorts in Utah. It's a newer one called Zermott, in Midway. Very very nice. Very Euro-Swedish-mountain village-y. I would highly recommend it. In fact, I'd like to try it out SANS children next time. I think we'd really enjoy it then. This was a really unique European carousel at the resort that as you can see Dane was thrilled by.

This was at a restaurant in Park City on an "Adults only" dinner on our Family Reunion. It was yummy.
This fairy-terrific chandelier is one I saw at a sweet boutique in Alpine called "dear Lizzie" and I plan on copying it for Lena's room.
Us showing the kids "BYU- Where mommy and Daddy met. The BEST school in the whole world where MOMMY and DADDY fell in love. " Let's just thank goodness the kids aren't old enough to be gagged by that.
Fishing with Papa

Enjoying Pools and Water parks was a fairly significant portion of our trip, given the fact that it was about 115 degrees every day.

Bathing with Friends.

We spent a lot of time with my Sis-in-law(and her fam!), Lori- She's AWESOME!

Our brush with Nature.

Riding the ski lift up in Park City to go down the alpine slides!

Hangin with the girls