Hanging out at the Bird

Two times a year, the Millers go up to Snowbird and stay at The Cliff Lodge.  In July there are always people coming and going and it is a little bit like party central. In October, it is more laid back and relaxed, due to everyone schedules. It's more difficult to make it up there when everyone is in school and there are a lot of activities going on.

This fall, we managed to go up for a couple of days. Snowbird did NOT look like the picture above. We were looking forward to enjoying the changing fall colors but we got a winter scene instead.

It was pretty but it didn't make me want to go outside and walk around the resort very much. That didn't seem to deter the kids very much. They were running around in their swimsuits like it was the middle of August.

One afternoon, I took my parents up there and we spent the evening and had dinner there.  My mom and dad loved just sitting around and relaxing with the kids.

Here are Emma and Caleb making the most of the facilities. The hot tub out on our balcony was a good place to relax.

Can you see Caleb?

 They had a lot of fun at the pool. What these pictures don't show is that my mom is wearing a winter coat when she was snapping these pictures.

After work Brad came up and went to the spa. I swear, if we had a steam room in our house, I would never see him. Thanks Wood and Susan for letting me share the condo with my folks, we had a nice, quiet, relaxing evening.

Crazy Cool

My mom and dad on their first date in Washington, D.C. The year was 1967. Yeah, my parents are cool...

A Welcome Visit from Relatives

Last week, we received a visit from my aunt and uncle from Texas and my cousin and her family from Los Angeles came for a visit. It was wonderful to see them. I hadn't seen Lisa in about ten years and I had never met her two adorable girls. We were able to take them to some fun places the few days they were here. On Friday, we took them to Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon:

My aunt Ying Yee with Caleb. It was an unseasonably chilly day.

Caleb, Hayden and Emma

My uncle Hawk with my mom and dad (Caleb is under the towel. Did I mention that it was unseasonably chilly?)

Mom, Emma, Andrew, Hunter, Aunt Ying Yee, and Rachel

Lisa, Hunter, Hayden, Ed, Andrew and Rachel.

We had a yummy dinner made by my aunt and my mom while the kids had a good time together.
One of the benefits of having older girls around is they can teach the younger ones the finer art of dress-ups.

On Saturday, we took everyone to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes. A good time was had by all (even if we were all encrusted with sand and our teeth were crunchy afterward)

We tried to slide down the dunes on big sheets of cardboard. Um, yeah, it didn't work.

The kids found a really deep hole (about 5 feet deep) that someone had dug. By the time we done, the hole was about 2 feet deep.


Sisters.

Sisters wandering the desert and no where near a shopping mall.
I had about a pound of sand in each cuff of my pants.

Here is a picture of Caleb being dramatic. He told me he was pretending he had been wandering the desert for weeks and he had run out of water. Then he fell over and rolled down the hill to his "death". What a ham!

It was a really nice visit from the Jows and the Lees. Please come again soon and let's not wait another ten years.

Wicked, Wicked Family

On April 25th our family had the amazing opportunity to attend the show Wicked at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. The tickets were extremely hard to come by but luckily, Ed works for Zion's Bank and he was able to purchase the tickets even before it was announced to the general public. Thanks so much to Ed and my parents for making all of this possible. It was really extra special to be able to attend with them.

We ate dinner at Little World (one of the tastiest Chinese restaurants anywhere-seriously, anywhere) and then drove downtown to the Capitol Theater.

I was so concerned about being there on time that my head was a little hou tou and I didn't take that great of pictures. Poor Caleb, he wanted to be in this picture so badly. Everyone looked really nice, you'll have to take my word for it. Brad even wore something other than jeans and hiking boots.

Waiting for the show to start. Oh, look at Em. She only wants to have her picture taken on her terms. You can feel the 'tude from where you're sitting, can't you?

Elphaba defying gravity. I was moved to tears.
What can I say? I love, love, loved it! I've wanted to see Wicked for some time now and it was made that much more meaningful to me that I was able to see it with my entire family. Ask Rachel to do her imitation of Glinda sometime, it is spot on.