The Wedding at Red Cliff Ranch

It was a beautiful day at Red Cliff Ranch in Heber City, UT for the wedding. The temperature wasn't great, a chilly 54, but with the sun shining it wasn't too bad! We had to get there early since the girls were in the wedding party. So we met them at 2. The house at the ranch was full of the wedding party. Girls upstairs and boy downstairs. There was  lot of food and beverages and everyone was anxious to get started. We hung out downstairs for the most part. The girls wanted to be with Mitch and Ryan.

Shortly before the ceremony started we headed up the hill to the ceremony location. As you can see from the photos...it was an absolutely beautiful setting. There were live musicians playing songs that Ryan and Carrie chose for the guest. And it was decorated perfectly. The ceremony was officiated by Carrie and Ryan's friend Sean. He did a wonderful job personalizing the ceremony. And since Ryan is Jewish it had the perfect mix of Jewish and Christian elements. I couldn't help but get a chuckle out of the yarmulkes and cowboy boots.

Rehearsal Dinner

Because of the snow, the ranch was a little wet/muddy for the rehearsal. On the way there Kiersten pointed out some birds (I think they were mag pies?), they were black and white so she said "Hey look at the cow birds" and proceeded to "moo". Then a little further in the drive, she was looking at the trees and said "Hey, those trees have snow bark!" Of course they were Aspens with the white bark. Such an observant little one. After we finished up at the ranch we hurried back to the Miner's club to get changed. They girls were super excited to put on their dresses. They love to be Fancy. I blame Fancy Nancy...well...and Gigi.

The Rehearsal dinner was at a Rustic Mexican Restaurant at the Hyatt. The food was delicious. The girls were really well behaved. They sat and waited patiently while we waited to be dismissed for the buffet and they listened quietly while parents of the groom thanked everyone for coming. Of course they cleaned their plates...because they love to try new foods! Bug even said that the corn chowder was so yummy!

After dinner, they got their gifts from Carrie and Ryan for being a part of their special day. Since the wedding was being held at a ranch they each got a horse stable complete with play horses by Melissa and Doug. They loved them. Bug and Hattie got down on the floor to play immediately while Leah stayed up a the table and looked through the accompanying books. Then, before we left we had to get a picture with Ryan and Carrie. We knew Saturday was going to be a busy day for them and we didn't want to miss our opportunity. We went back to our suite excited for the next day!

Olympic Park

On Friday, we decided to give Olympic Park a try. The girls could see the ski slopes among other things as we were driving around and it was hard to explain it to them. It was still VERY cold, and there was still snow on the ground but we made the best of it.

Upon entering the museum there were different sleds/skeletons and what not for visitors to try out. The girls thought it was pretty cool. I loved putting all three of them in the bobsled. It made me think of the movie Cool Runnings. And if Jamaica can have a Bobsled team, surely the Schultz family can too! After that we watched several video clips of different Winter Olympic events. The girls couldn't believe all the twist and turns and flips that some people would do on their skis. The best part was when Bug said she wanted to go "Skeeting".

After finishing up in the museum we wanted to go up and see some of the actual trails and what not that they actually used in the Olympics but because of the cold and the snow, they weren't taking shuttles up. But the girls were super excited just to see the training pool. And since we were outside Daddy, Leah and Bug busted out into a snowball fight. Hattie and I ran for cover!

Thanksgiving Point

For our first day in the mountains Mitch had high hopes of taking us all to Olympic Park. But it was COLD, really cold. We woke up to snow capped mountains. So we had to go with Plan B. And plan B didn't turn out to be half bad. Mitch took us to Thanksgiving Point. There are several things to do in the area, but the girls were really looking forward to the Dinosaur Museum. Okay, that's not the official name, but I can't recall the ACTUAL name right now.

It was great. They had cast of several ancient life animals but had a fair number of the real deal too. Did you know there was really a Utahsaurus, for real. And we saw the skeleton of the largest turtle every found. The girls thought it was great. They had so many different activities for the kids to do. They had a water table complete with sand, and buckets and shovels to play with miniature dinosaurs in. They had a large velcro exhibit where you could make your own dinosaur. And at the end they had two enourmous areas where kids could dig and uncover fossils with all the right tools. They loved it. And I loved that we weren't outside in the freezing cold.

To Utah we went!

We did it! We took our first trip as a family of 5. Hard to believe that by the time Leah was 15 months old she had probably flown at least 2 dozen times, and yet somehow, this was Hattie's first time on a plane. I guess that's what happens when you move back to the midwest closer to all your family. Anyway, we had been planning the trip for nearly a year. Mitch's best friend, Ryan, was getting married. Mitch was the best man, and Leah and Kiersten were flower girls.

We checked in at Savoy airport around 5:30 AM for our 7 AM flight. The girls actually did great. We had a layover in Dallas. Dallas airport is great. They have kids flight clubs, which are esentially just big playgrounds for little ones. It was perfect. They probably played for 45 minutes and then we had a quick lunch before getting ready to board our next flight. By the time we landed in Salt Lake, it was about 2PM. We got our rental car and made the drive to Park City. The girls loved the mountains.

We were fortunate to be able to use the time share and got a  great 3 bedroom/3 bathroom suite at the Miners Club in Park City. It was gorgeous and it worked out perfectly. We put Bug and Leah in one room, Hattie in the other while Mitch and I had the master suite. We quickly made it home. And the girls loved the breathtaking views from the balcony. Not to mention the pool :)