A Luxury Staycation

Our big family trip for this year was somewhat different than normal. Let me start by explaining how it came about. While we were in Ecuador last year, my brother Chris had an idea- that each adult choose a destination for our next trip, and we have a drawing. We all thought it was brilliant. The plan was to pick a trip that was family friendly because we were planning on taking all the kids. Chris, Brandon, and Steve all chose different places in Hawaii, I chose an Alaskan Disney Cruise, Andrea chose a Carribean Disney Cruise, Jessie chose Banff, Canada, and mom chose Deer Valley, UT. Since Cole didn't really care, he chose to throw his vote in with mom's for Deer Valley. We each presented our case for our desired trip on Thanksgiving day, and the drawing was held on Christmas day. The chosen trip: Deer Valley, UT. I'll admit to some disappointment. After so many exotic trips, I wasn't very excited to drive 40 minutes away to spend 7 days with my kiddos. It didn't feel like I was going to get the break I needed. However, my kids were really excited, and we had luxury accommodations awaiting us... so we went!

Taking a staycation has its advantages.  First one- no airport craziness.  Second one- we packed whatever we wanted.  Hooray for no luggage weight limits!!!!
We started our trip off with a Mexican lunch.  It was lovely.  The whole trip was lovely.

After lunch we did some alpine sliding and coastering.  This is Steve, Dallin, Grady, Brandon, and Daxton riding the lift up for their turn.

The next morning we were up early for a hot air balloon ride.

The babies weren't too crazy about the noise that the flame made when it shot into the balloon.

Daxton loves to fly.

The pilot pointed out the light ring around the balloon.  I don't remember all the technicalities that make this possible, but he said it is rare.

At the end of our flight, I spotted this little girl outside in her jammies.  She was waving at us and we were waving back.  It was fun!

Grady and Grandma had a bonding moment while the balloon was being deflated.

The pilot says it's tradition to have champagne after a safe flight.  We had orange juice instead.

On another day we went to dinner at a ranch. We also got to go on a "hayride".  Mostly it was horses pulling a wood trailer, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Watch out for the poop!

Taba sat back to relax and enjoy her dinner.

The kids loved to watch their leaves float down the stream.

On our last afternoon there, we took the kids to Monkey Mountain.  It's an indoor playground and they had a great time.  They keep asking me when we can go back.  That's a drawback to a staycation... the kids wanting to go back and do everything again.

Some of the other highlights from the trip that didn't get photographed:
- Adult dinner at Chez Betty.
- 8 mile downhill run for me.  Hooray!  It was beautiful, but it started the demise of my hip which plagued me during my half marathon the following weekend.
- Spa trip with the girls.  This was not as relaxing as I hoped.  I started with a facial and the aesthetician berated me through the whole thing, which meant I wasn't much in the mood for the massage I had planned next.  I skipped it and just got a manicure instead.
- Luxury accommodations at the Stein Erekson lodge.  It really was the perfect setup, with each of us having our own hotel room, but a family room and kitchen connected to our rooms so that we had a gathering place.  Oh, and three private hot tubs... that was nice too.
- Pool time.  We loved it, and could have used more of it.