The Finale; Park City

I have been dragging my feet writing about our last stop. The last stop. How sad that makes me to write. How neatly it sums up one of the best years of not only my life so far, but surely of my life in entirety.

Jordanelle

We pulled into Park City on an unusually warm day. We came through Salt Lake before climbing the hills and it was the first (and only) time our truck started to overheat. We had had all the windows down, music blaring, but still it got too hot so we rolled up the windows and switched on the AC which is when the temp. gauge began to climb. I was sure we needed to find some water to dump on the engine, but Chris, my steady and calm partner, knew to turn on the heat full blast, pull over, and keep the truck turned on. Add in a little patience and the temp. gauge dropped back to normal and we carried on.

Cozy in the front seat with this guy

My beautiful aunt and her beautiful backyard

Our site was in a campground we had traveled to over a year ago, located at the Jordanelle Reservoir. I'm not sure if there is a bad campsite in this beautiful park that offers hiking trails, views of the surrounding hills, and of course the water. We dropped the camper and headed over to my aunt's house for dinner. It was a wonderful coincidence that my cousin from CA was there celebrating her baby-to-be and I got to go to the shower the next day.

Going to make camp

They are somewhere on the other side of that lake

The week in Park City was spent hiking, biking, visiting with family, going to a museum in Salt Lake and visiting old sites that I remember as a child as I lived in Salt Lake for a couple of years and have celebrated more than a couple of family gatherings over at my aunt's old place. The boys would wander far off to create "camps" as they played, going much further than I am comfortable with, though they were perfectly safe in doing so. They requested "delivery" for their dinner down to their camps, and I happily carried their dinner to them so they could dine lake-side as this is not something they can do in our backyard at home.

Finding creeks

Toward the end of the week I had it in my mind that on our last day I wanted to do something out of the ordinary, to have a memory of the four of us doing something new. My aunt and cousin who lives in Utah helped us figure it out and we all drove to the Homestead Crater Hotsprings. There, we got to float in hot water located on the inside of a crater that is around 65 feet deep. It was a day of "new" that I had been hoping for! After the float, we hugged our goodbyes with my Aunt Jean and Brenda and headed back to pack up the camper.

Crater Hotsprings

In the deep

Driving home, we created a playlist of our trip that will still bring tears to my eyes as I remember those songs we sang and dances we danced. We created a slideshow for the upcoming welcome back party we were having in a couple of days, and we talked about all of our "favorites."

That night, we pulled over in Laramie, WY for the night so we could have our first reunion with family the next morning in Cheyenne. Chris' family was waiting with open arms to welcome us "home." His grandparents had a great get together for his mom, brother, sister, and all of the accompanying families. All the cousins got to play in the backyard as the adults caught up on the past year and it felt a little like the cheering chute after ending a race, when people line up and greet you all the way to the finish.

Hellooooo Hulse's and Nelsons!

Home!

That afternoon we crossed over into "Colorful Colorado" and headed to the second set of open arms of my parents. We landed at their house, full of food, comfortable beds, and new bikes for the boys so they could continue their adventures, here at home.

It's a party!