Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Park City Utah

We just returned from a week in heaven! We were in Park City, Utah. The mountains were beautiful, the temperature perfect, and we had great friends to spend it with. We stayed in a gigantic 5.5 bedroom log house in Deer Valley. It had a beautiful view of the valley. See photos for proof!

The house belongs to a friends company and she gets to bid on vacation weeks and decided to invite us (as well as several other families. These are Heikki's friends from King's Point, the Merchant Marine Academy). Thank goodness she still has her job! It was actually very interesting that of the 4 families present, one of the spouses from each family was unemployed/laid off in the past year. Another family who could not make it had both spouses lose their job in the past 1.5 years (they both have new jobs thankfully, which is why they were unable to take vacation time).
We spent the first day exploring Park City where the kids met a (fake) moose and lovingly walked together nicely with their new best friend Ava.

Heikki tried hula hooping with Suvi. Markku was too shy to even try. This was at their Park Silly Sunday Market.


We went hiking at Sundance Resort-a breathtaking place. We rode the ski lifts up and then did a 1.5 mile hike with the kids, then rode back down. It was a fun day.

Look at these giant dandelions!

We went back to Sundance the next day and rented bikes for a ride down the Provo River into Provo Utah. Tricia and Cesar went with us, and it was hard work pulling the bike trailer back up the river path on the return ride. Cesar, me and Heikki all took turns. Tricia, who is 5 months pregnant, still beat us all!



This is Bridal Veil Falls.
We also drove along the highest paved road in Utah-up to 10,500 feet or something like that. It was a beautiful drive with a pretty alpine lake at the top and the Provo waterfalls were beautiful.

Right after taking this photo Markku went in for a swim unexpectedly, and luckily Heikki caught him before he slid down or went over the rest of the falls! I was so scared for that second that he was in the water! Suvi then went running into Mirror Lake. Keep in mind that the water temps were likely in the low 50s or something. Very cold! I guess that is their Finnish blood.

We did a few more short hikes. One at Wasatch State Park where we walked to an old pioneer farm and picked apples. Markku really liked that part, although he complained a lot while hiking that he was soooo tired. Poor guy, he was at altitude and only 3 years old. Suvi got to ride in a back pack!

Markku and Heikki went river rafting (Suvi was too young to go so I stayed with her). No pics as Heikki did not bring the camera. It was more of a float since it is so late in the season. But they still had lots of water, and coming from central Texas and the drought this place was luscious and green and had so much beautiful water!

Markku finally rode the Trolley on our last night there. He kept asking to and we kept expecting to have more time. Look at that face...I am glad we made it before we left. He had a blast and it was just a quick loop around town. Suvi was home sleeping already!
We spent time eating, reading, playing at the house and just having a really nice time.

This is our friend Rachel and her daughter Nina. They used to live in Austin, but now California. You can ask Nina: "Where are you from?" She says "Texas". She also says "Hoo Koo" She is a true Texan even at 17 months.
Markku would fall asleep exhausted while still playing!

Heikki too was exhausted-Heat exhaustion hit him hard when he tried mountain biking at Sundance. No pictures of this, but afterwards, when he was better, I was wishing I had for this blog! He was pale as can be and very sick! Luckily we caught it early and were able to get him rehydrated and cooled down. He is fine now.

It was great to see these old friends again and to spend time with the kids together. Soon enough the trip was over, and we were packing to go home. We are looking forward to our next trip, maybe in the winter?