Jason and I try to make it to our timeshare in Midway once every winter. Sometimes it doesn’t happen but this year it did. Just a couple days before Christmas we took a break from the holiday hassles to enjoy the crunch of man-made snow under speeding inner tubes and the repose of an endless night of board games.
Jason and I never have to be convinced of the merits of going downhill fast.
Tubing entertained Isabelle for about an hour and a half and then she was no longer amused.
In keeping with tradition, we invited my brother’s family to join us on this outing. We started our getaway with an afternoon of sledding on the slopes of Soldier Hollow. Tubing went over far better with Drew’s kids this time than it did a couple of years back. Instead of disliking any rapidity, Isabelle alternated between demanding and detesting swiftness. Although she couldn’t decide if she wanted to go faster or slower, she handled the mountain mayhem relatively well. Jadon, the family chicken, surprisingly wasn’t intimidated by the hill this time; he particularly enjoyed racing down it. Even though he repeatedly insisted that his dad was the fastest sledder, experience proved otherwise. Drew failed to win any of our descent contests. Jadon eventually got wise and requested Jason as his racing partner, which resulted in an anticipated victory.
Jadon loved putting crusty chunks of snow in our inner tubes.
There’s never a dull moment with this boy.
After tubing we ate a yummy dinner at the Spin Café in Heber. This joint doesn’t look too impressive from the outside but the inside is cozy and the food is tasty. My favorite part of the meal was the candy cane chocolate gelato I ordered for dessert. The Spin Café makes their fantastic gelato in-house and I made a particularly excellent decision when I chose the candy cane flavor. Scrumptious!
Jadon thought getting served root beer in a cowboy boot was the height of sophistication.
We played a variety of games until 2:00 AM. Bananagrams turned out to be a little too extreme for Andrew. He had a wee meltdown during one round.
A night of intense board gaming later our quick trip was over. It was nice taking a breather from the all-consuming Christmas craziness. In just 24 hours we slid, gobbled, and gamed. Did I mention I lost at Sticheln? Such is the might of the mini-vacation!
The company that Jason works for holds their Christmas party each year in Disneyland. Every employee’s family is invited and the trip is completely paid for from airfare, to park passes, to rooms at the Grand Californian. Before you start saying your “no ways” let me assure you that I am not exaggerating or imagining. Feel free to begin muttering now about how your employer sucks.
Sleeping Beauty’s castle was all aglow with twinkling lights and fake snow.
Jason’s company hosted a lunch with yummy food and Disney characters one afternoon.
Since Jason switched jobs less than a year ago this was our first corporate Disneyland trip so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Here’s the scoop on how it all went:
Weather: When the temperatures back home are in the 30s or 40s anything feels comparatively nice and 73 feels amazing! I wore shorts for nearly our entire vacation. Even when the sun went down and things got a little chilly I largely refused to cover my legs. After all, it’s not every day a Utah resident gets an opportunity to wear summer attire in December; chances like that are not to be squandered. One afternoon I even read a book by the pool in my tank top while the pervasive sunshine made me nice and sweaty. It was an unseasonal miracle. The only hint of winter’s presence during our trip was the darkness that hit suddenly every evening at 4:45. That premature setting sun made keeping track of time difficult but I was too overjoyed by the generally pleasant conditions to care.
Main Street was nostalgic and cheery.
Our hotel lobby was filled with a massive Christmas tree.
Parks: The Disney parks are always amusing that’s probably why they’re called amusement parks. We thoroughly enjoyed spinning on Space Mountain, shrieking on California Screamin’, giggling through the Pirate’s Lair, and plunging on the Tower of Terror. Jason and I have never been to Disneyland near Christmas so it was a treat to see Main Street decked like the halls and “it’s a small world” transformed into a winter wonderland. The Haunted Mansion Holiday, with its seasonal spook scenes, was Jason’s favorite out of all the rides we went on.
We scrambled around the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail until an accident involving my finger, Jeremy, ropes, and high speeds made a Band-Aid necessary. Blame shall not be placed here because it is clearly implied.
Silas loved this nameless dog.
Crowds: Saturday the masses were a mess. The rest of the time the hordes were manageable.
You’re never too big to ride a revolving sea creature.
I had a great time exploring the Pirate’s Lair with Milo and Silas.
Company: Jason works with a couple of our buddies, Jeremy and Adam, so they went to Disneyland with us. We screamed, laughed, and waited much of our time together. This was generally a good thing.
The outside and innards of “its a small world” were altered to reflect the season. It was an adorable change.
Jason and I hung out in California Adventure one evening by ourselves. We had a fabulous time eating hand-dipped ice cream bars and watching packs of people hustle by.
Food: On Disneyland vacations past, getting good food hasn’t been a top priority for us. That’s why I’m pleased to report that this time we got some excellent grub. We ate a yummy lunch at the Blue Bayou, that cool restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was a hard place to get a seat at. We made reservations weeks in advance and yet only a few timeslots were available. The food was tasty but not as gourmet as I was expecting. However, whatever the meal lacked the atmosphere made up for. With glowing lanterns hanging from fake trees illuminating an artificial sky, it was as serene as a mosquito-free fabricated swamp gets.
I like a wild ride.
Jason caught Eden giggling at the Disney cartoons playing in the hotel lobby.
Napa Rose, the fancy restaurant located at the Grand Californian, was another place we tried that’s worth mentioning. We decided to sample this popular spot even though we couldn’t get a reservation, which meant we had to sit in the lounge to eat our dinner. It wasn’t as secluded as a reserved table would have been but the delightful cuisine was worth putting up with some nearby neighbors for.
In my opinion, both of these restaurants are worth checking out if you happen to be in the area.
Duffy, Disney’s teddy bear, was as cuddly as his stuffing would suggest.
Few things are as glorious as basking by a pool when temperatures in the 20s await you at home.
It’s hard to find complaints about a vacation you didn’t have to pay for so you will get none from me. The weather was lovely, the company was more than plentiful, the crowds were mostly manageable, the decorations were festive, and the food was better than anticipated. Since our expense to amusement ratio was very favorable, I’d say we got a good bang for no bucks.
Every summer Jason and I end up participating in quite a few races. We welcome these events because they provide good motivation to train a little faster or a bit longer. Plus, they are an excellent way to measure your athletic progress. While we were involved in our normal number of competitions this year, they didn’t exactly proceed normally for us. For one, Jason’s pace throughout the season was curiously faster. I, on the other hand, kept up my middling speed nicely until I hurt my ankle and then sluggish limping was the best I could do. Oh woeful foot! As the weather gets frigid and the races dwindle, let us look back on all the sprinting glories and frustrations that have come to pass these last months.
Jason zipped to the finish line at the Thanksgiving Point 5K beating out all but two of his competitors.
For years Jason has been able to outpace me on the track. Every step his long legs take requires two of my own. It doesn’t exactly seem fair but it does give me a lovely excuse for lagging. My quick hubby has nearly placed in several races before but he’s never quite managed a win until this summer. This year he was third in his division not only in the Thanksgiving Point 5K but the Lehi City Roundup 10K as well and then he won 1st in his age group at the Night of the Running Dead. What happened to make that boy so speedy? He got old. Jason’s last birthday placed him in a different age division, an age category where he’s among the youngest instead of the oldest. That bit of help was all he needed to become a leader of the pack. But hey, the dude finishes a 5K in about 22 to 23 minutes; I’d say he deserves some recognition for that whether he’s ancient or not.
We were enthusiastic at the Thanksgiving Point 5K from fresh start to sweaty finish.
Our racing plans had to be halted mid-summer because of my accidental ankle altercation. Ironically, I completed a 10K just hours before I tore my tendon and various ligaments for the second, and hopefully last, time. Leftie took me out of the competition circuit for about 5 weeks. My first race after the injury, Sandy’s Moonlight Run, was awesome because it started at midnight under the full moon but not awesome because I barely crept along its course with my braced ankle. Although I made it to the finish line, I was well behind hundreds of hardly runners. If they had handed out a prize for the pathetically slow but stubborn I definitely would have won it.
I promise I actually was moving when this was taken.
Thankfully, broken parts tend to eventually mend, even scarred silly parts like my tendon. My ankle comeback felt complete when I won 3rd place overall at Easton’s 5K a little over 3 months after I gracelessly wounded myself. Yes, I already discussed this win in another post but what’s the harm in mentioning it another time or two or three? Surely, it’s not an unforgivable sin to continually call attention to what will probably be the sole running triumph of my life.
Moonlit runs in the wee hours of the summer are my favorite so I wasn’t going to let a grumpy ankle stop me from participating in this midnight adventure.
That pretty much sums up the summer season of races for us. Jason ran fast. I ran sort of okay, hurt myself, hobbled along, and then picked it up a bit. We look forward to the spring when the world thaws and the competitions commence. Then Jason can once again conquer the other old men and I can further my longstanding mediocrity.
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