Life in the Alps

Last November we were gifted with a hotel voucher for a night at the Zermatt Resort (an awesome, Swiss-themed hotel near Park City, UT).

It was fun to pretend we made it to Europe for a weekend!

Warming up by the fire in the entryway.

We were also given a gift card to eat dinner at the fancy steakhouse there at the resort.

They had magical potatoes that were so good!

We splurged a little for the fondue platter.  Excellent choice.

The entire resort is built on top of a huge thermal water source.  There are all sorts of these collapsed caves leading straight into the deep, hot water below.  There is a huge cave on the property that you can walk into and swim in as well.  (The pool area inside the hotel has hot springs pools throughout too.  It was really fun!)

Caitlin had a hard time with the fact that the Zermatt Bakery was already closed when we arrived.  She had to wait ALL THE WAY until breakfast for her pastries.

It snowed the next morning for us--adding authenticity to our "Swiss" vacation!

Unfortunately the cold weather resulted in the mini golf course being closed.  We were looking forward to reviving our recently dormant putting skills from when we had a year pass to a fun center.

It was the center of everything: just a few thousand miles from any city you could want to see!

We had such a good time and were so grateful for the opportunity to explore our backyard!

Halloween Festivities

I have some serious catch-up to do!  First on the list: Halloween.

We saw noticeable improvement from 2013 on the pumpkin front.  Caitlin really wanted to paint hers this year, so we found a "chalkboard paint kit" at Target.  She was happy as a really happy clam!

We found an actual pumpkin carving saw at Target too--best investment ever.

They turned out well!  Caitlin's would have lasted till Thanksgiving, but some neighbors must have stolen it (while we were home, no less).  A day that will live in infamy.

Halloween night, we decided to go to the Cornbelly's Maze in Lehi.  It was an excellent decision!

My first corn maze.

Trying to scout out our escape from a bridge we found in the maze.

Finished!

Caitlin found a really big cow.

We also did a significantly smaller and infinitely more frustrating maze while we were there.

(Caitlin finished in half the time it took me--that is likely where the 'frustration' began to come into play.)

Giant, rubber, inflatable bounce pad...exhausting!

The view from the top of the potato-sack slide.

There were tons of things to do there!  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share of the pig races (those little guys were just too speedy for amateur photography), but I did capture an excellent series of events below in the tube races:

She made it about 3 feet on that attempt...

And to cap it all off, what is Halloween without a firework show synchronized to awful re-mix country music?

Rent a Puppy!

Meet Bruce.

Let the judgments begin, but Salt Lake City has a company that allows you to "rent" a puppy that is up for adoption.  It took only a couple hours to realize how fun it would be to own one!  If only we didn't live in a tiny apartment or had a yard he could play in while we were at work.

We took Bruce to Liberty Park to play.

He was so much fun!  Despite our living circumstances, I still might adopt him if he still doesn't have a home in a month or so...don't tell Caitlin!

He liked tug-of-war and LOVED other dogs he met at the park!  He kept trying to play with this super old Poodle (one of the huge ones--not a tiny toy poodle), but the poodle was not having it.  Bruce kept jumping as high as he could to try to get up to the poodles face.

He also is obsessed with army crawling.  We would be walking to another section of the park, and Bruce would just plop down and start crawling wherever he wanted to go.

Crawl after that stick!

After about an hour of playing he was all tuckered out.  He slept for a good half hour!

I miss him already!

Big Sky Country

We drove home to Montana this August for the first time in over two years.  I can't believe it had been that long!  Driving through Big Sky (above) is my favorite.

Finally home again!

The field across the street from my house.

They have started putting in housing developments in small sections of it since I left--it will be so sad someday when the field doesn't exist anymore!

Our first full day in Bozeman, we rented a Forest Service cabin up in the Bridger Mountains for dinner and s'mores.

Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

The next day we went to the Lewis & Clark Caverns (about 50 miles outside of Bozeman).

Off the freeway on the way to the caves is the Wheat Montana mill...

...and you can't miss an opportunity to enjoy a fresh Wheat Montana cinnamon roll!

After loading up on carbohydrates, we were ready to tackle the caves.

You start out by driving high up the mountain to the visitors' center.

Then you hike the rest of the way up to the cave entrance.

Caitlin and Mom

Lewis and Clark never actually discovered the cave, but they followed the Jefferson River (seen above) right by the base of the mountain on their way to the coast.

It was Caitlin's first real cave experience and my first time since 4th grade!

I can't imagine being on the team that carved hundreds of stairs into the rock.

This pool is extremely clear but has a green tinge because the original visitors (over 100 years ago) used to toss pennies in it.  The pennies have been removed but the green from the copper still lingers.

Paradise Room

I am sure there are much better pictures online than these.  It doesn't appear the iPhone camera was exactly calibrated for cave photos.

Our third day we walked across Pete's Hill, which overlooks Bozeman on the east side.

Bozeman

Looking the other direction from Pete's Hill is the field by my house.  (My house is on the far side of this field toward the right side of this picture.)

After Pete's Hill, we took a stroll down Main Street to check out the shops.

We stopped for lunch at Ted's Montana Grill for a buffalo burger.  Neither of us had ever tried one and it seemed like a Montana-y thing to do!

(Owned by Ted Turner--CNN founder--who owns tons of land in Montana with many, many buffalo.)

Buffalo and a chocolate shake!

We collect wood animals from places we visit, so this provided a perfect opportunity to get a wooden buffalo!

After lunch we visited Montana's version of a beach.  (No joke, it is actually called the "Bozeman Beach.")  The fact that it is empty on a beautiful day tells you everything you need to know about the water quality...  We often ran on the trail system around the pond in high school though.

Our last morning, before driving back to Utah, we went to Montana State University to sit in on one of my Dad's classes.

The Physics and Engineering Building

It was fun to watch!

(College is much more enjoyable when you know you don't have to take the test at the end.)

After four short days, the sunset of our vacation had come.  (This is somewhere in Idaho during our drive back to Utah, compliments of Caitlin while I was driving.)  Going back to work is the worst.