Pre-Thanksgiving Vacay :: Park City

The hubs and I decided to take a pre-Thanksgiving vacation to Park City, UT. We made flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday night, which was perfect because a major snow storm was predicted to hit Saturday morning, so we had safe travels, but didn’t have to wait long before the snow hit!

We stayed at the BEAUTIFUL (fairly) new Hilton Grand Vacation resort in the Canyons. 

After checking in we walked around Main Street, the historical downtown area. 

We found Vinto, a popular pizza restaurant! I ordered the DELICIOUS gluten-free Florentine (spinach, tomatoes, garlic and artichoke hearts) pizza. 

Then decided to finish the night with their famous gelato sampler - pumpkin, vanilla and peanut butter swirl!

Saturday morning we came across a quaint, mom and pop breakfast place, where I had the delicious meal, Chilaquiles, which is two eggs, over corn tortillas, salsa and cheese. I think this will be a Saturday staple at my house from now on! 

"No Worries Cafe" is famous for their biscuits and gravy, which is the hubs’ favorite breakfast. Winning.

After breakfast it started snowing!! So we listened to Christmas music while we went shopping for ski clothes! I’ve never skied before and wasn’t about to hit the slopes in my running clothes! Running clothes are great for running, but not for flying across snow. I had to take a video of how amazingly beautiful the snow was!

We spent the rest of the day alternating between sitting on our porch in new ski clothes and sitting in front of the fire trying to warm up! 

Don’t worry, the porch door stayed open all day so we could feel the cold mountain air! 

We did leave the hotel to explore Main Street some more, where we ran across the adorable coffee and ice cream shop "Java Cow.” We may or may not have had their ice cream three times on the trip.

We had a relaxing Sunday morning before hitting the slopes in the afternoon. I decided to skip ski school and trust the hubs to teach me how to ski. 

The hubs is a great teacher, but I must be a terrible listener because as soon as my boots were locked in my skis, I started moving forward and couldn’t stop. I zoomed past people yelling, “Watch out! I can’t stop!” Then I finally figured out how to fall. Totally sufficient way of stopping, right? 

I’ll spare you all the details of the rest of my spills, but the day ended with me sending this text to my family:

Despite tears shed I did I have fun. And I was determined to make the next day even better. Which I did.

That night we ate dinner at the oldest restaurant in Park City! It wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had, but the restaurant was cool!

Most of Monday was spent skiing as well. Thankfully it went much better! No children were harmed that day, so that’s a win in my book! I also didn’t fall!

Monday evening we had dinner at a delicious chophouse. Typically I’m not a fan of steakhouses, but this one was beyond delicious! I had the macadamia nut-crusted halibut… buy far one of the best dinners I’ve ever had! Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it. What kind of blogger am I?!

On Tuesday we had another breakfast win from a place called "The Eating Establishment.” No, thats not a Seinfeld joke. Then walked around Main Street and drove around the rest of the morning taking in the beautiful scenery of Park City!

That night my dream came true. I got to meet my FAVORITE blogger, Janae! We’ve emailed a few times, but when I found out we were vacationing in Utah, I immediately sent her an email in hopes that we could meet! She always talks about Cafe Rio, a Chipotle-type restaurant chain, so it was a no-brainer that I wanted to eat her favorite meal with her!

Janae is everything I’ve ever wished I could be! My goal for 2015 is to be just like Janae in every way. Her and her little girl are the SWEETEST people I’ve ever met! From reading Janae’s blog I knew that Brooke likes dogs, so we brought her a small stuffed puppy to help her warm up to us.  It made my heart happy to see Brooke’s face light up when I showed her the present! 

After we got back to the hotel we sat in the hot tub, yes in sub-freezing temperatures! It’s a good thing the hot tub was heated!

Wednesday, the last day of the trip, came too quickly. We had one last must-see place left on our list - Olympic Park! 

It was so neat to see the place where such athletic history was made! Looking at the luge track made me tear up thinking about how the most athletically talented representatives around the world came together in hopes of accomplishing their dreams at the place where I was standing. It was amazing :)

Then we listened to Christmas music again while we hit up "No Worries Cafe" again to have a re-run of our first (and best) breakfast of the trip. 

Then headed back to Salt Lake City to fly back to Dallas.

My favorite moments from the trip:

• Skiing with my sweet, patient and graceful husband 
• Meeting Janae. I may have cried a little when it was over.
• Driving around and seeing how BEAUTIFUL this part of the country is! 

This vacation was the perfect combination of busy and relaxing. It was nice to leave the stresses of everyday behind and just enjoy a quiet and relaxing time with my husband. From sitting on the porch eating snow, sitting in front of the fire reading my book, and sitting in the hot tub in freezing weather, to walking around Main Street, skiing and driving around listening to Christmas music, this vacation was amazing. I thought a lot about my goals for the upcoming year and am beginning to have an awesome plan in place! I’m excited to share it with you! But not just yet… :)

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