Mountain Retreat take 2

We spent a long weekend at the same fabulous cabin not far from park city...this time with Dave's side of the family. Great times with family, including Granny who made the flight from NC despite still recovering from her back surgery to be with all of us. Dave's dad would have been so proud! And of course there were lots of kids to keep it interesting, 13 now! We started the vacation with a day visit to Seven Peaks Salt Lake, formerly Raging Waters. This was such a blast from the past for me, and it was fun to watching Amanda, Maren and all their cousins enjoying the wave pool and all the rides that I used to ride. Honestly I am surprised so many of them are still there. I did get a chance to ride a few and it was so much fun. The next day we rode the alpine slides again, Amanda got a double ride and loved it!

I also rode the mountain coaster with Maren, which was so much fun. She kept wanting me to go faster, while I was going as fast as I could make our car go. Such a crazy adreneline junkie she is! Here she is riding the "racing stripes" while her cousin Isabelle is riding "super dog".

A few of us took a little detour on the ride back to the cabin as we obviously hadn't had enough crazy rides yet to ride the bobsled at the summer Olympic park, including me (in the red helmet). It was crazy fast and not exactly my idea of fun...but it did make realize why bobsledding is a sport and respect for those who do it all the time, including our driver who got us all down in one piece.
A very cool experience!

I also got to help push the sled that Andrew and Megan rode in before our ride...

And for our last full day we drove to mirror lake for a hike and a picnic.

Spencer showing me some snow he found...we were at about 10,000 feet.
Look at those cute blond boys...can you tell they are cousins!

We turned a few heads while Dave's brothers carried Granny in her wheel chair using a big stick across a good portion of the trail.

One amazing a determnied lady, that I was so happy to get to see.

Maren and Lily loved playing in this log after the hike was over...
And most of Dave's siblings went for a mountain bike ride down the runs at Deer valley later that afternoon. Here is Dave with his brothers Luke and Andrew at the top.
There was lots of down time at the cabin as well, including a fun family slide show night and a night of crazy games thanks to Emily. Like trying to turn over a magic carpet we were all standing on so as to see the instructions on the otherside, a few human knots, and this one of us trying to get to the other side of the hot chocolate lake using marshmallows that someone had to be touching at all times.

Amanda and her cousins tried putting together a thousand piece puzzle, in which they woke up on the last morning to find completely finished...thanks to a few secret helpers.

Spencer enjoyed story time with Grandma Patty...and a few cousins.
Such a great family to spend the weekend with, thanks to everyone who traveled far and did all the planning to make it happen this year! Can't wait for the next one!


And because you thought I was done rambling...here's one more. Dave tells me that his dad used to do this "flipping machine" with him and his siblings growing up. So this was a great impromptu treat for all the kids one night.