Our Pre-Christmas-Minus-the-Kids Vacation

Sometimes you want to create special holiday memories with your children, and sometimes after being husband-less for several weeks, you want to create special holiday memories without your children. I think Christian could see I was on the edge...not of glory like Lady Ga Ga....but the literal edge of my sanity. Maybe it was all the hints I dropped about checking myself into UNI. Whatever it was... It worked!

While Christian was working in Utah a couple weeks ago, and I was finishing up my final papers for school, he said to me "what are you doing the 9th and 10th of December". I checked my calendar and told him that I was free. He said that he had something planned. He sure did...

He arranged for grandma Vicki to watch the kids, she arrived on Thursday night, and we left first thing Friday morning for Salt Lake. Christian had to have a lunch date and finish up some work related business, so he dropped my off with my sissy.  Bethany and I hit up her hair stylist for some "hair-doing" lessons, then Granato's for lunch, and we met Christian at the Utah Utes store later that day.

Here we are, surrounded by our favorite team paraphernalia, right after we got our hair did! I think I've finally decided to give up the wavy hair fight, for a season, and try this curlier look. I'm giving my flat iron a break for a while.

Of course, Bethany had to try some cute baby clothes on her baby.

After we said good bye to Bethany...apparently some people have to go back to work... Christian and I checked into our hotel. He kept telling me that he got a room better than the Anniversary Inn, we laughed and joked because we thought our stay at the Anniversary Inn was a little lame for the price.

Then we drove right up to the Grand America, no joke. I have the slippers to prove it! For the sake of all my readers, this is the ONLY picture you will see from the inside of our room!

The Grand America, is just that....Grand. You could spend whole days inside and never come out into the real world. Some reasons for the five star rating...in my humble non-sophisticated opinion.

1. There is a door man that opens your car door when you arrive. Christian may or may not have almost slammed his hand in the door. We are obviously not that high class.
2. There is a cute little dude from the Ukraine that takes your bag to your room, and makes awkward small talk with you all the way to the 15th floor.
3. There is a free cookie and gelato cart that is available all hours of the day and night.
4. People call you Mrs. and Mr. and you have to look around to see what "old" people they are talking to.
5. They charge you $10 extra dollars just for getting on their treadmills.

There are some fun activities at the hotel, even if you are not a guest. There is a Christmas treasure hunt that we participated in. You walk through the main level of the hotel looking for clue in the fancy window decorations. It was really fun, I almost wished my kids were there...almost.

We also got to check out this gingerbread house. Yes, made by the chef at the Grand America. Christian is pretty tall, and he could have lived comfortably in this thing. All gingerbread, 30,000 gumballs, and the windows that look like glass are sheets of crystallized sugar. It smelled so good!

A nice family with kids, who actually had an excuse to get pumped up about gingerbread houses offered to take our picture. We were obviously way more excited about it than their kids!

 Finally, the bakery and toy store in the Grand America are worth a visit. The tree outside the store was decorated with balloons. Something I might try someday when my kids are at a less of a choking hazard age. The robot and dragon are displays in the store, and the monster is one of the main windows of the store. It was amazing. You could spend hours and your life's savings in that place. We managed to purchase a few books for the kids...we didn't forget about them entirely.

 

We got up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning and ate breakfast at the Village Inn on 4th South for old time's sake, and then hit the shopping trail. More Costco, the outlets at Park City, and then home again.Grandma Vicki looked a little tired when we got back, but we were so grateful for her willingness to come and wrestle the kids for a couple of days. She left me a voice mail later that night that said something like..."Cammie, I told you that I cleaned your whole house, but we missed a few things. We didn't get the showers done and we only swept the floors...not mopped them -pause------pause- your one little helper was too much of a helper to get much done. Now I see why it's so hard for you to get things done."

I've been back to reality for a couple of days now, and it's not so bad.