A Mountain Adventure

Christmas day we woke up bright and early, but not in excitement to open presents this year.  We were heading out that morning to the Tampa International Airport.  Adam and I went on our first family vacation with my family to Park City, Utah to go skiing.  This was Adam and I’s first vacation that involved snow so we were super excited for a “white Christmas.”

 

  Packing puffy snow gear is not easy.  Here is 8 of our 10 bags!  When we got to Salt Lake City the cold hit you right away, but it was a refreshing cold.  We drove up to Park City and rented all our skis and gear for our first day of skiing. 

Day 1

One great thing about Park City is they have 3 ski resorts so we could ski many different places.  We decided to Ski Park City Resort for two days because they had a variety of runs for all of us.  See the thing is that Adam had only being “skiing” once before.  He went snowboard with his family a few years ago with no lesson and a horrible best friend who took him to the top of the mountain.  Not the best first experience, so my family and I were determined to turn his ideas of skiing around.  We dropped Adam off first thing for his 3 hour private lesson with Paul from England. Ha!  My brothers headed up the mountain with the rest of us not too far behind.  This was the one time on the trip I skied a slope more difficult than a green, but I wouldn’t have traded my time on the mountain with Adam. 

 

Having to sit on the lifts is the part that freaks me out the most when skiing, because of my fear of heights.   Now Adam loves the lifts but is more scared of the slopes and skiing into a child.  What can I say opposites attract. 

After lunch we skied the rest of the day together and he was doing a lot of this…

Pizza Pie!  He was doing great and getting the feel for his ski’s.

Everyone happy for a great first day of skiing!

Day 2

The next day we stood in line for the First Time lift many times but at least we weren’t the only ones that needed the green slopes. 

After a few awesome runs on lower slopes we were ready to tackle HOMERUN after lunch.  This is the longest run at the resort (3.5 miles)!  So we headed up the Creasant lift!

Here we are excited to be on the top of the mountain!

Not as much Pizza Pie today…my man is French frying it!  We went out to Park City’s Yamato’s which was not your typical Japanese steakhouse.  We were bummed to have no onion volcano but a great time was had by all. 

Day 3

We skied Deer Valley our third day which we absolutely loved.  The don’t allow snowboarders which makes the slopes a bit safer.  The sun was out all day!

I love this picture of Adam .  I freaked out getting on the lift and we had to get on separate chairs.  Ha!  I did get a great picture, though.  For lunch we ate at this restaurant on the top of the mountain.  It was delicious.  They had the most amazing table of desserts.  I literally ate 6 different ones by the time we left. YUM!

After lunch you could take the lift back down or ski down.  We skied down and Adam did a great job with me taking the only serious digger on the way down.  I am thankful to say only Michael and Dad had a “yard sale” this trip.  A yard sale in the Mirabella household is when you loose both poles and skis.  I think if Adam had a yard sale he would think twice before agreeing to another ski trip. 

Day 4

When we woke up everything had a new layer of white.  It had snowed all night and it was still snowing.  We loved Deer valley so much we decided to ski there again instead of the Canyons which we had originally planed. 

The boys had a bit of a snowball fight while Dad was parking the car.  It was snowing pretty hard by the time we got up there.  We were already to head out when we got the bad news.  Most of the slopes were closed due the high winds on the mountain, so we decided to not ski.  Mom opted to wear her helmet in the car for extra protection…haha!

We went into town to eat some lunch at Flanagan’s and hit up the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  After we went home for some serious play time.  We made snow angels, a sad attempt at a snowman, had a snowball fight and even tried a bit of sledding.

I took this picture while laying down under a tree.  I loved it.  The snow falling was so peaceful!  I could have laid there forever if I wouldn’t have eventually froze. 

Heading home…and we never got a family picture on the mountain!

What a FANTASTIC trip!  I don’t know about being on a plane on Christmas day but I would definitely go skiing again soon! 

*LRW*