Flight

I don't have an official "Bucket List." Maybe I should, who knows. Yet, a few weeks back I was thinking about what would be on my list if I had one. Hawaii - defiantly. Ireland - most likely. Learn to Salsa Dance, run a 5K (start slow) and a 10K, ride in a hot air balloon, Learn how to blow glass, Ride the highest roller coaster, see Mount Rushmore, see Statue of Liberty, win big in Vegas (or at least have fun trying)... This list could go on and on and it's been kind of fun thinking about it.
Anyhow... while I was thinking about my list, I mentioned to Erek that one thing I would like to do one day is to ride in a small plane. I guess what got me thinking about it was that Erek's mountain biking friend Mike has his pilot's license. It would be a cool experience to fly in a small plane and not something everyone gets to do. So Erek just happened to mention it to Mike. Mike is a great guy that said he would totally take me up in a plane one day.
Two weeks ago, on Sunday afternoon, Mike called me up. It didn't seem real but the more we talked about it the more nervous I actually got. I knew I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. We left the kids with my parents, Erek came along but he didn't want to go up in the plane (he doesn't like heights) but he came for moral support. We met up with Mike and headed to the airport.
After a Pre-flight check we were off. It was surreal. It was amazing, such an amazing view. We had to fly over to I-15 and then follow it down to south of the valley, mostly over the Sandy area. It was so cool. My first thought was it looked like my kids toy cars all driving down on the road. It just seems like I was dreaming. After a few minutes up in the air Mike had me take the yoke and had me fly the plane. I was really freaking out on the inside of course. He had me just try to keep the plane level and at an altitude of 6000 ft (above sea level) which was about 1800 feet above the valley, I think that is what he said. It seemed so crazy, I keep trying to look out the front window and it was bothering me that I couldn't see what was in front of me due to to large dashboard panel. What was I looking for anyways, other traffic?!? Eventually, I just tried to follow the gauges and hope that I kept us up enough. I circled around the valley for about 15 minutes, before he took back over and we headed back to the airport. We did a few touch and go's (where you land but then go right back up) just for the practice. It wasn't until the very end when I started to feel a little uneasy in my stomach. Yet, once we landed I felt fine.
What an amazing experience it was, I kept telling Erek all day "I can't believe I was in a plane today, and I flew it!" He just had to laugh at me. He has now told Mike that he will go up next time, I guess he doesn't want to be called a chicken.
Thank you so much Mike for letting me come with you. It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget. So now back to my list, what else can I cross off?

Mike - the Master pilot

I think this is looking down at Little Cottonwood Canyon, It had such beautiful fall colors on all the trees. An Amazing view!

The view of Downtown Salt Lake City.

Mike and Me as I am trying to concentrate on flying the plane.

Alpine Slide

This is Erek and Bella riding down the alpine slide at the Park City Mountain Resort. This was Bella's first time on the ride and she loved it. At first Erek thought that she was scared but then he realized that she was just screaming like he was. She cried every time she saw the chair lift because she wanted to go on it again and again.

Break

This last week was fall break and yes we needed a break. We rented a condo in park city for the week. I was able to take the week off work and we pulled the boys out of school. Erek had the whole week off from school but he was scheduled to take the GRE on Tuesday. He spent the first couple days preparing for the test. He did really good on the test and was able to relax the rest of the time up there. For me it was just a really relaxing vacation. We didn't rush around to do to much. We spent lots of time just chilling. We went swimming, biking, and on the Alpine Slide. I was pretty bummed when I got up the mountain I realized that my camera didn't want to work. Luckily Erek just got a new action camera and he had brought it to video the ride down (I will put it in another post). It was so pretty up there the leaves were changing colors and the weather was just prefect. We had a fabulous time and didn't want to come back to our busy lives, but at least we had the chance to get away.

At the Pool

Back in the Condo

This is how we would find the kids pretty much every night. They are crazy sleepers.

Now doesn't Bella have the coolest hair ever! It is usually pretty wild in the mornings!

The Oreo Queen - She loves Oreo's!

Our bike ride
We went on a bike ride on the park way just out of town. It was so pretty it went up through the trees.

Dinner at Redrock Brewery
Our last night there we went out to eat. We had a great time and yummy food.

Pictures

This past week while we were up in Park City, I convinced the family to go out and get some family photos done. We would not ever claim to be photographers. We were just hoping to get a few good shots of the kids and of the family as a whole. We tried to just make it fun and enjoy out time together. We walked up main street and found some cool back grounds. We actually got a few really good pictures.

Fall

I LOVE FALL!!
We have had such a wonderful fall season so far this year, nice warm weather. The first weekend in October the Zoo had a Fall Festival for the members and so I thought it would be fun to take the kids. It was a beautiful day and we are still wearing shorts! There was so many people there, and the lines were crazy long. By the time we made it through just 2 of the lines we were done standing in line. We still had fun just being outside and we saw just a few of our favorite animals. That is the great thing about having a pass, we can go for just as long as we want and are not rushed to make sure we see everything.

Sand

About 2 weeks ago, we got a call from Erek's parents asking for us to come and rescue them. They had gone out to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes for the weekend. On Saturday afternoon Laura crashed on the 4 Wheeler, breaking a bone in her wrist. They had spend many hours that day out at the Hospital in Lehi. Erek's dad asked us if we would be willing to come out there Sunday morning and drive Laura's truck back for her, since she was in no mood for driving with the meds and pain she had. So we said we would love to come out and help drive back. Once we got there we couldn't help but climb and play in the sand for a few minutes. We had a blast even if it was just for a short while. It brought back many fun memories playing in the sand from when I was a kid. It has been too long since we have been out there, we had to promise the kids that we will come back sometime soon.






Laura is feeling much better now and she said that it wont stop her from getting on the 4 wheeler again. She still had a great time.

Dance Party!!

Here is the Dance Party video that everyone has been waiting for. I never knew that Logan had so many sweet moves and Jake is a phenomenal lip syncer. Bella busts out her hula dancing for y'all as well. Its pretty good for the first 5 minutes or so, after that they loose interest in dancing.

Ride

How about a Ride?
We love our bikes, you could say some of us are obsessed with riding, but we wont say who. Yet, we all love to get out and have a good ride.
One of our favorite places to go is up in the foothills of Draper. There are a ton of great trails all over up there. Erek took the boys out one Sunday morning. It was a pretty tough trail for Logan that day but they all made it to the top of Canyon Hollow trail. Good job guys!

Then a couple days later Erek took me and Bella on that same trail. He has been wanting so bad to get me up there. He loves it up there, he go out and rides Draper every Saturday morning. Since, we always have Bella during the weekdays we decide to just bring her along in the little child seat on Erek's bike. It was a tough trail for me but I was able to make it too, I couldn't let the boys out do me. We had a lot of fun and Bella did really good. She loved being out in the mountain and seeing all the birds around us.

Don't laugh at me, but look how bright red my face is when I finally made it to the top.

These last pictures are from one of Erek's rides up on the Shoreline Trail just behind the U of U. He tries to go out riding at least 4 time a week. Yeah, he loves it.