When we first had babies, one of my dreams was that when they each turned 13 - I wanted to take them on a special trip - just them and Scott and I. I wanted to start off the teen years with a good note and something that we would remember.
So when Harper was nearing turning 13 in January - we talked about this. She wanted to go to the mountains or Colorado and she mentioned "what about Utah?" Scott and I have never been to Utah and had wanted to visit so this seemed like a great idea for January.
We decided to visit Park City. I love researching and planning trips so I tried to make it one that she would enjoy. We have never skied and we are hoping to do that as a family in the next year so I found things to do besides skiing and there is a lot!
We flew in SLC on Friday morning. It was a quick direct flight. Park City is a 30 min drive so we decided to explore Salt Lake a little before going on. I found this cute French bakery for lunch. Harper LOVES macarons so I knew she would love it.
After that we walked around downtown SLC and went to see the Temple square.
I'm sure it might be a little weird for three Baptists to visit the mormon tabernacle but honestly I found it fascination just history wise. The temple is being renovated. I was a little disappointed to not see it.
We walked around all the buildings and were able to go in most of them.
University of Utah is just a few miles away and I love college campuses and stadiums. We drove right up and walked in and they said we could go in. It's a beautiful stadium with mountains as the view.
We then headed to downtown Park City. It's such a cute area. Tons of restaurants and stores. I loved it. The only bad part is the parking is a nightmare. More on that later. ha! The Sundance Film Festival was supposed to start 2 days after we left but ended up going virtual thanks to Covid.
This is the prime photo spot in Park City. See the window to the left - that's where we ate dinner. We got to sit right in that window on a Friday night.
The restaurant we ate at was Fletchers. It was probably our favorite meal of the trip. It was SO good and we had the best table in that window.
The reason it was so fun was we watched TWO couples get engaged in that spot right outside our window! I posted this picture on instagram and had at least 4 different people message me who knew this couple - they are from Texas. Is the World small or what????
Park City is just magical!
We stayed at Black Rock Mountain Resort in Heber city and it was so nice. It was just a few miles from downtown PC and new and we loved it.
They had a coffee shop in the lobby and we grabbed coffee and headed out to go tubing on Saturday morning.
This was a lot of fun. I had made us reservations for everything we did a few weeks before which really helped. We went to Soldier Hollow to tube. We got to tube for 2 hours.
After Tubing, We ate lunch at the Corner restaurant in Midway, UT which is a cute little swiss town. Then we drove around and just explored the area.
Then we had tickets for the Ice Castles which is a neat attraction that was right across from where we tubed.
We went back to our hotel and got cleaned up and ready for dinner. We had reservations at the Purple Sage and I was so excited. But we drove around and around and around trying to find a parking spot (it WAS Saturday night of MLK weekend and tons of skiers in town), and after 45 min we ended up losing our reservation. So I had to quickly google and find somewhere we would could go.
We ended up at the Back 40 Ranch House in Heber City which I wasn't excited about and we had to wait outside forever for a table but it was really good and we got to eat in this neat little yurt tent.
Sunday was Harper's actual birthday. We had a tour scheduled of the Olympic park that morning.
I'm not a huge olympics fan but it was very very neat.
We had a great time.
We then went to Freshie's for lobster rolls. They are flown in from Maine every day. It was delicious!
We spent the afternoon going to all the shops with our teenager and looking around. It was fun.
That night we had reservations for the Edge steakhouse which is maybe the nicest restaurant I've ever been to. It was definitely an experience.
We did NOT eat out in these snow globes but doesn't that look amazing?
I didn't eat that whole bread but I wanted to. ha!
They brought out a special birthday dessert at the end. I know it's something Harper will never forget!
The next morning we drove back to SLC and got on a plane to come home. It was a fast but fun trip.
We flew in and out of Tulsa and when we were picking up our bags - right there was a sign for St. Francis. That's the hospital Harper spent her first month of life at. What a full circle moment to think about how she was so critical in that place and here she is a teenager! Who is kind and smart and passionate for Jesus and all the prayers that many of you offered have not gone void. Thank you!
