Sundance - Day 9

These lovelies decorated all of the walls in our lodge. T-Man didn't really know what exactly to make of them. For the first two days, he continuously pointed them out and told us what each one was doing. "This one is dancing, this one is playing an instrument, this one is waiving 'Hi' with both hands." He eventually got over them until the last day when he pointed them out again, and again, and again, and again :)

We walked around Sund.ance for the last and final time and then poor Eric had to load all the bags into the car. Usually not an issue, but he had 50 steps to go down in rain, sleet, icy snow "stuff".

We think he might be healed by now!

Saying Goodbye

Thankfully, it was another successful flight home.  Litt.le Eins.teins saved the day again! 

We came home to find all was in order.  The car was still in the parking lot and started, the home was still standing right where we left it, the dog survived her stay at her doggy lodge.

Unfortunately, the cleaning fairy forgot to stop by - the dust bunnies were right where we left them.

Sundance - Day 8

 
We decided to drive the "Alpi.ne Lo.op" off of the mountain today.  BEAUTIFUL trees, leaves and ambiance - we were able to listen to General Conference on the radio.  Fun, Fun experience.  We tried to explain to Tyler which General Authorities were speaking and he somewhat understood.

Once on the other side of the mountain we detoured off to "Thanksgi.ving Poin.t".  It's a little shopping, gardens, movies, kiddie farm, artisian shops, etc.

Pony ride/walk

We took a tractor ride around the farm, visited with the animals and T-Man walked through "the old west" and found the jail to be a very intriguing building - yikes!

His favorite was the garden room.  He got to plant toy seeds, harvest them, drive them to the market, sell them and cook with them -- very cute.

We decided to venture back to Sund.ance for nap time and then went on another adventure to find Ma.rie Calenda.rs for dinner.  We were successful and enjoyed some yummy home-style cookin'.

Dreading tomorrow -- back home and back to reality

to be continued....

Sundance - Day 7

We ventured out for another drive. This one took us to Bridal Veil Falls Park and then later that night to Dairy Ke.en (yes, that's the real restaurant name)

As a side note: The rental car had no DVD player (I know, unheard of!) so we had the opportunity to sing show tunes together and talk to each other the whole time with no "Little Einsteins" interruptions. It was on this vacation where T-Man learned the capitals. He would ask us, we'd tell him, he'd ask again, we'd tell him again, rinse/repeat until by the end of the plane ride home he could tell us close to 40 of the 50 state capitals.

Deciding he'd rather sit on the ground, rather than hold someone's hand while we walked.

T-Man + H20 = Danger.

He'll walk right into the middle of a lake (and has tried to, twice)

Sounds of Bridal Veil Falls

Dairy Keen -- Yummy food, a model train riding around the restaurant,and one happenin' place on a Friday night!

to be continued...

Sundance - Day 6

43 degrees, sunny, windy, and nippy!

Since the day we were married, I decided we would do a family portrait on our anniversary. I scoured the internet from Chicago before we left to find a photographer willing to work with wiggly three year olds, available before conference weekend, reasonably priced, and willing to give us the rights to the photos so they could be used as our Christmas card photo. We got soooo lucky and found this fun, high-spirited woman to work with. We spent two hours in north Provo (Sundance had snow -- we could get a snow picture in Chicago). We wanted something a bit different and not studio stuffy. It took two hours, but we got the "Christmas card" shot (not to be revealed in this posting!) and one perfect one of T-Man.

(This isn't the perfect one - This was practice before we left)

We knew he would be a challenge. He only wanted to make fish lips, wouldn't look at the camera, and it was so darn cold, we were all shivering and had runny noses with pink cheeks. Asking him to say "cheese" didn't work, but if you asked him what the capitol of Florida was, he would throw his head up and say, "Tal-a-ha" (head came down) -SEE" and Heather would get the picture. Every time T-Man sees these pictures, he says, "and who rode with us in the car and took our picture?" "Miss Heather did!"

Heather was great (she has like five kids under the age of six -- unbelieveable! I don't know if I could even function, let alone chase other people's kids around for two hours to get the perfect picture.)(and then there's me with the scrunched nose)

It was an adventure! We took pictures at an outdoor mall, a park near Bridal Veil Falls, in a park near the Heber Creeper Train, and near some business offices with great landscaping.

and then there's this picture -- It cracks me up -- it appears as though the Earth has tilted :)

We survived the photo shoot and ate lunch at P.F.Chan.gs in Orem.

Before heading back to Sunda.nce, we drove up to the Mount Tim.panogos Temple.

After shivering all morning, we were all exhausted. We napped, walked around Sunda.nce and ate dinner there at the Foun.dry Gr.ill.

to be continued ...

Sundance - Day 5

We were in for a late night tonight, so we took our time getting ready for the day. We strolled out of Sundance about 11:00. Our final destination was Tremonton to visit this aunt and three of her four children. We decided to make numerous stops along the way and hoped that T-Man would find some shut-eye in the comfort of his car-seat, but that didn't happen -- yikes! Our original intent was to stop at all the Utah temples from Sundance to Tremonton, but the weather was not our friend. It was rainy, cloudy, gloomy, and then eventually it turned to snowy.

We drove to Ogden and stopped at Subway for lunch. We thought we'd stop at The Treehouse Children's Museum to let T-Man run off some pent-up energy. Oddly enough, right across the street was this:

The Ogden Temple

At the museum, we couldn't pull T-Man away from this:

(The sound is terrible, but occasionally, you can hear him name a state)

He loves The United States of America puzzles, maps, etc. He can name all 50 states, point them out on the map, and can tell you 45+ of the state capitals. He continues to amaze us everyday. That boy comes from some amazing DNA!

More museum pictures:After the museum, we headed up to Tremonton. Of course, 15 minutes from my aunt's house T-Man fell asleep. We drove around for a few extra minutes, but it didn't help much. He woke up on the wrong side of the car seat and wasn't much like himself that night.

We had a most delicious dinner with my aunt, visited for the first time in about 10 + years and the kids got to play. T-Man was fascinated that there was another boy there with the same name as him, only he was 9 years old. He is still talking about "Big T-Man". "Big T-Man is 9, I am 3". We stayed for a couple of hours, but had to head back. We were in for an early morning with a photographer on Day - 6 at 9:00 in Provo.

to be continued . . .