Park city, Utah

After an adventurous three days in Moab, it was time to head to Park City for part two of our Utah trip. The 4-hour drive ended up being a bit more eventful than we’d expected. About halfway into our leisurely drive, we see lights flashing behind us. Coppers!! We pulled over and the officer came to my window letting us know he clocked us at 90mph (!!!) in a 65mph. Oops, sorry about that Mr. officer! He was nice and wrote a ticket for just 15mph over, but no amount was shown on the ticket. I guess we have to call to find out how much we owe?
 
We eventually arrived at our hotel called Newpark Resort. As soon as the boys saw the hot tub out on our patio, they changed and jumped right in! They splashed around for a bit and then wanted to explore the rest of the hotel. Surprisingly they were more interested in the gym than the indoor/outdoor pool and spent nearly 45 minutes lifting weights and running on the treadmill. Wesley wanted to run long distances ~10 minutes at a time, starting at 6 mph and maxing out at 9 mph. Tyson wanted to sprint as fast as he could and found out he could run the max treadmill speed (12 mph) for “10 calories at a time”…takes about a minute at that speed. I was a little nervous they’d fly off the back and have another unwanted trip to Urgent Care, but thankfully they were respectful with the equipment and turns out they have insane endurance!
 
We came out of that gym with Wesley wanting to ask Santa for a treadmill (Tyson said he’d take one too)…and Tyson had a great idea for a treadmill with a big wall to wall screen in front of it that projected any trail/experience you want to run – ‘Like what if you could run on the Great Wall of China!?’ Great idea Tyson! He walked around talking about which of his friends is the best programmer he’d get to write the software, and which were best runners to test the experience. I’d absolutely buy that! Make it happen Tyson!
 

Once they were dripping in sweat and we were able to drag them out of the gym, we drove over to the historic downtown Park City. We peeked in a few shops before heading to dinner at Grappa, an Italian restaurant overlooking the rustic town. The ambiance, pasta dishes and especially the limoncello spritz were top notch! The boys made Marshall’s sparkling water EXTRA lemony and limy, and even added a tic tac for extra bubbles. Yummy! The boys were eyeing an ice cream shop in town that we had to stop by after dinner. They were definitely finding all the best ice cream shops on this trip!
 
Later that evening Marshall and I walked to the lounge next door for some live music while the boys had some relax time in the room. The singer must have been about 18 years old and was playing popular acoustic songs on her guitar, while her boyfriend sat by the stage on his laptop bobbing along to the music and eyeing anyone who didn’t clap after each song, lol. It was nice to sit and relax to some chill music before heading to bed so we could be nice and rested before a big day tomorrow.

​The next morning we met up with my sister, Nicole and her husband, Noel, who had just flown in from Seattle to hang out with us for a few days in Park City before they went on an epic adventure to Yellowstone and beyond. We got some coffee and immediately drove to Utah Olympic Park. This is a training facility for Winter Olympians to practice in the off season…and they turned it into a cool spot for people to try out a lot of extreme outdoor activities. Totally our jam! We wanted to go on the Alpine slide first, a massive metal slide that goes down the side of a mountain, but was informed that a tree had fallen on the slide the night before and they were scrambling to find a welder to come fix it….on the 4th of July! All good, there were plenty of other fun activities to conquer.
 
We started with a ride up a ski lift to the top of the hill. The views from the top were stunning! We snapped a few pics and then were ready to start our adventures. Nicole and I went straight to the extreme zip-line that sends you flying down the mountain at 55 mph! Marshall and Noel took the boys over to the airbag jump to see what it’s like to be a real-life stunt man. They started at the lowest 5ft platform to get the hang of how to land.  They then moved up to the higher 10ft platform which gives you a much bigger rush. After a few jumps they were ready to head over to the high ropes course. Marshall went up with them and maneuvered their way around all the challenging obstacles. The boys are always impressing us with their perseverance and willingness to try new things!
 
By the time Nicole and I zip-lined down, the boys were done with the ropes course and ready to go check out another activity. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the clouds rolled in and started to rain along with some thunder and lightning. Oh, come on now! Their protocol is to close all the activities for 20 minutes after any lightning strike within a mile. Since we had time to kill, we walked over to the cafe and grabbed some lunch. While we were eating and counting down the minutes, lightning struck again … add 20 more minutes to the clock. Grrr! We didn’t know how much longer this would last so we asked the front desk if we could get a raincheck to come back the next morning. Luckily, they agreed and said we could get new bands for tomorrow morning, since we only got to go on two activities. Sweet, maybe the Alpine coaster will be fixed by then!

We continued our exploration of Park City while Nicole and Noel went on a drive to sightsee and hike to some cool waterfalls. As we were driving around, we landed at Park City Mountain Resort that also has many adventurous activities like alpine slides, mountain coaster, ropes course, etc. Before any activities, the boys wanted to cool with off with a sno-cone. There was a syrup station of about 10 flavors that you pour yourself onto your sno-cone. Probably not the best business decision! The boys poured way too many flavors on their sno-cones turning it into a soup of indistinguishable flavors. They thought it was awesome though!

We were excited to try the mountain coaster to see how it compared to the Leavenworth, WA coaster. Marshall and Wesley rode together while Tyson and I rode by ourselves. There is a long steep track that takes you to the top of the mountain before winding down the hillside twisting and turning at 30mph.  Definitely more thrilling than the Leavenworth coaster!
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Instead of doing any more activities, the boys were ready to head back to the hotel and hit the gym. They wanted to “work on their stamina”, lol. Once they exhausted themselves, Wesley jumped in the pool for a nice swim while Tyson sunbathed with us on a lounge chair.

Later that afternoon we headed into the historic downtown to grab dinner. We found a lively Mexican restaurant with a patio that was right across the street from a little park that had live music. Jackpot! After dinner we walked over to the park to continue listening to the music. The band was taking requests, so we asked them to sing I’m Yours by Jason Mraz. They said they had never performed that song before but would give it a shot. They nailed it!

It was time to head to Canyons Village for all the July 4th festivities. The village was on a hilltop with sweeping views of the surrounding hills. They had a live band playing rock music on one stage and a DJ on another playing hoppin’ jams that I was vibing with. They also had a bunch of activities scattered around like corn hole, giant Jenga, connect 4, etc. The boys found a candy shop that had all kinds of random goodies that we had never seen before. We told them they could each pick out one thing. They spent like 30 minutes in there picking out their special treat. After we said no to literally everything in the store that had like 100 grams of sugar, Wesley ended up with a tiny bubble gum machine (that was stale) and Tyson got a 6 pack of mini soda pop cans of fizzy candy.
 
Nicole and Noel met up with us just in time to find a spot on the grassy hillside to watch the drone show and fireworks. The music started to play, and several hundred drones zoomed up to the dark sky and lit up over the mountain side a few hundred feet away. The drones made the coolest formations like the American flag, world globe, and blue angels flying. We were all in awe of the show and then immediately following the drones was a classic firework show. We all agreed this was our most memorable 4th of July show to date!

The following morning Nicole and I took the boys back to Utah Olympic Park to go on the rest of the activities we didn’t get to do the day before. When we picked up our tickets at the front, they told us the Alpine slide was fixed. Wooohooo! We immediately speed walked over to the ski lift that took us to the top of the hill where the slide starts. Wesley and I went down the slide first. Unfortunately, there was a lady in front of us who got stuck and was having trouble getting her sled to roll down the track. Dang, I guess we won’t be smashing it down this track like I planned. Tyson went next and got stuck on the track too. Luckily Nicole was riding behind him so she could give him a nice little jolt to get him going again.
 
Extreme tubing was next on the agenda! Tyson was ecstatic to try the tubing. Since Wesley wasn’t old enough to go on it, Nicole and Tyson went down first. The tube track is insanely high and steep which allows you to get up to speeds of 50mph. I thought for sure Tyson would scream all the way down, but he champed it up. In fact, he wanted to go again so next time around I went down with him. I screamed the whole way down (as expected), lol. Thank God I went to the bathroom five minutes before the ride because I would have left the track extra slick for the next person!
 
Once Nicole walked with Wesley down the trail to meet Tyson and I at the bottom, we took another ski lift to the zip-lines. Wesley and I raced down first. I was beating him until he passed me right at the very end. Then Nicole and Tyson raced and Tyson passed her at the very end too. I think they rig these zip-lines so that the kids always win, lol.

We went on the alpine slide one more time before heading back to the hotel to meet up with Marshall and Noel for lunch. We found a restaurant called Star Cafe that overlooked a golf course and the surrounding hills. Nobody was all that hungry, but we all had a nice light meal. Except Wesley, he ate all his steak and was still hungry, so he had a few slices of Noel’s meat lovers’ pizza. Once he was satiated, he then proceeded to ‘experiment’ and put the extra leftover slices of pizza and French fries in his cup of water. We bet him $5 he wouldn’t drink it and he actually did. Who’s kid is this? He wanted to leave the rest for the server and said it was worth like $20, which is a nice tip. Good lord! Not sure the waitress would agree, but good thought!

Later that afternoon we drove along the beautiful scenic winding Pine Crest road to the town of Midway to meet Nicole and Noel at Adventure Haus for a two hour unguided off-roading UTV tour. After receiving a trail map and vehicle instructions, we headed up into the hills to the start of the dirt trail. We took off and were flying over the insanely rocky terrain while bumpin’ around in our seats and enjoying the epic views climbing up the side of a mountain. We were keeping our eyes peeled for wildlife and spotted a goat and a few deer along our journey.

We came to Cascade Falls trailhead and hopped out of the UTV for a quick trek to see the waterfall. We would have continued the hike, but had barely enough time left to return our UTVs. We hopped back in and coasted down a paved winding road through the hilltop back to Adventure Haus. We were all covered in dust and in desperate need of a good hose down. My white shirt was clearly a poor decision, lol.

Nicole and Noel were headed up to Montana that evening to see Noel’s family for a couple days before heading to Yellowstone. We said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel for our last evening before flying back home in the early morning.

When we got back to the hotel, we all jumped straight into the hot tub. Sorry hot tub cleaner for the dirt we left in there! The boys didn’t feel like going anywhere for dinner so we picked up a couple pizza slices for them. Marshall and I walked around the corner to an Italian restaurant and shared chicken parmesan. After we got home and everyone was showered and cozy in bed, I realized I left my phone at the restaurant. Just wonderful! Marshall smiled and jumped out of bed to go get it before they closed (Once again - my hero).

The next morning, we got up at 4:30am to head to the airport. For the life of us we could not find one of Tyson’s shoes! After about a 15-minute search party, we decided it was a lost cause, so I gave him the sneakers that I was wearing and put on my sandals. Normally I only pack sandals and boots so he’s lucky I actually brought sneakers on this trip, lol. Luckily, when we got home Marshall found his shoe in his suitcase in the middle of a bunch of dirty clothes. The adventure never ends!
 
We had an absolute blast in Park City and would highly recommend it for families with older/adventurous kids. It was awesome to experience in the summer, but I bet it’s a completely different and amazing experience in the winter when everything is covered in snow!