11 Children On The Go to Park City

Well, another black out on the old blog, but after you read about this trip you will understand. Feb 19-23 was our annual college reunion ski trip. We guess this was the 8th or 9th year. It started before there was not a single child amongst us and now we had 11 ranging in age from 9mos to 8years old in a single house. The destination this year...Park City, UT. And the timing was great...a storm had just dumped several feet of fresh and we had three days of sun or partly cloudy on tap.

The house had been booked for months and was perfect having 9 closed door rooms with beds...enough for every family, single, and couple to have their own room. There was one room which housed two Dads who happen to come without their wives for either illness reason or Daddy-Daughter bonding. I blogged about rental hunting previously in "Book Ski Vacation Accommodations Now..."

My husband and I shopped at CostCo for a ton of the non-perishable items two days prior to starting our road trip. At nearly $1200 for 4 plane tickets and 1 rental vehicle we opted for the open road this year. My budget is approximately $25 per kid and $50 per adult when it comes to food. This covers breakfast items, sack lunch stuff for the mountain if you so desire, and 3 dinners at the house that I cook...as well as munchies and beverages of the minor and adult-type. One tip about shopping for kids...find out specialities of any children that might result in a mutiny of that item. For instance one family has a son whose breakfast is always those frozen pancakes. Well, last year that family bought those, but as soon as the other little noses in the house caught a whiff they were gone in a single breakfast sitting. So this year I splurged on a few of those items. Then once in town I grab a couple of able bodies and hit the grocery for all the perishables and what wouldn't fit in our vehicle...we had two carts overflowing and required a manger override the bill was so large and later that night our credit card company marked us for fraud as well. We also had some folks in early pick up discounted lift tickets at Canyon Sports the only catch to note is Deer Valley's can only be purchased a day in advance, but with a group this large it is totally worth sending someone out to get them.

But rooms were assigned folks started landing and pizza, salad, and laughs began.

Day 1 was at Park City Ski Resort. It was sunny. Kids 6 and under were FREE. Some kids skied that day, some took lessons, and some stayed home with one parent in the AM then joined us for lunch. Phones or talk abouts are essential on a mountain this large with a group this large. With 20minutes we had managed to gather everyone and stake out a lunch spot at Legacy Lodge on the sundeck. There was only one escape route set of stairs and a pile of snow to keep the kids occupied so it worked out great. Everyone enjoyed the sunny day. And that evening we had 3 sitters from the Guardian Angels of Park City come to the home and care for all the children so we could enjoy a dinner out. After asking for recommendations we got priority seating at Cisero's. It worked out perfect as we had enough time for one drink in their nightclub downstairs while they finished placing our tables and then up for a nearly 3hr long meal. We had a single waiter whom we were his only table of the evening and the food and service were great. We returned to all kids fed and in bed...minus our one usual hold-out. So a very successful evening.

Day 2 was the Adult Only day on the snow. All ski school age children were enrolled and two of our sitters from the previous night returned to care for the younger ones at the house. Check out my earlier post about this at Child goes on ski vacation....ski school, childcare, and more. Another beautiful day on the snow at the Canyons this time. We tend to pick the resort closest to our rental house on this day just in case something does happen we can get back quickly. Again at this resort Kids 6 and under are free.

Day 3 was a mix of skiers and non, kids in lessons and not at Deer Valley ski resort. The day was partly cloudy, but their grooming was impeccable as always. And we managed to get three of the children skiing at the same level that their Dad and I skied all morning with them. I don't think a single person packed their sack lunch here so we could all enjoy the decadent cafeterias. My daughter most enjoyed the fact she could load her hot chocolate with as many marshmallows as she wanted. Another wonderful day. A couple of notes about Deer Valley...no snowboarders, so we did alienate two of our group for the day and no children are free.

All in all another hugely successful trip and with each year the kids grow the easier it seems to get. But here are a few key learnings from this year we will carry forward:

- Bring a backpack with lots of strap or carabiners to get ski boots, kids, skis, helmets, lunches, etc strapped onto or in

- Just fork out the cash (generally $5) for a basket or locker for unlimited in and out all day. This way you have a place for that aforementioned pack and lunches as well as shoes they just wore in from the parking lot. Come'on now...we hate walking in ski boots, just think of your kids.

- Masking Tape...to label all of your kids gear the night before ski school. Even though two years ago one little boy got a pair of UGH boots comp'ed by the ski resort because they lost his clearly labels $10 Target boots.

- Collapsible Lunch Bags/Thermoses...snow sports are not cheap and if you kid is happy with a PB&J why pay $5 for a slice of cheese pizza at a ski resort.

- Crafts...while at the house we had crafts and various trinkets including beads and noisemakers for an impromptu Mardi Gras Parade the last night the kids took turns leading throughout the house.

- Healthy Eating...every year leading up to this one we have nearly everyone ill within a day or two of returning home. So this year's shopping list included veggie trays, fresh fruit and the meals were stir fry and make-your-own burrito with lots of veggies. This and a large box of Immune Emeregen-C for the adults to consume at least once a day. We have been home now for three days and no massive outbreaks.

Next years destination is TBD, but we saw a glimpse of our future with the kids starting to ski together and growing to an age they are becoming fast friends. So we are excited about the prospect of our children having many more years on the go with our friends' children.

Beaches T&C...we will return

First my sincere apologies to my readers for my absence. We embarked on our Beaches trip to return to the holidays and then head first into ski season. But with the swimsuit tan being exchanged for a google tan and the last of the holiday decor packed away I will return on my weekly basis.

Beaches Turks and Caicos...we agreed on our last day will be a major do-over in a couple of years. We, the grandparents, a brother and his wife without kids, and another family who joined us all said it was well worth the money spent. And again as I published in my previous article about all-inclusive...they can be a pretty penny.

We arrived at Beaches at about 7PM after a 10min drive from the very small Provenciales airport. Unfortunately staff at the airport could do nothing to help with the mosquito-like bugs eating us alive while we waited through immigration (this was the only time we were attacked as such) or the fact that American Airlines is notorious for losing luggage coming in there and everyone received their bags, except my husband. Luckily for him I had reminded him to put a swimsuit in his carry-on for just such an event.

At the lobby of the French Village, which is separate from the Main Lobby, where all other staying outside the French Village check-in, we were greeted by none other than Butch Stewart, the founder of the Sandals/Beaches empire. No, no he had not caught wind of my blog and was there to give us star treatment, but he was there to apologize as they were hosting the "World Travel Awards" that evening, so the restaurants in our area of the resort were closed, but he directed us where to eat and let us know we might here the awards as well as Sister Sledge playing until about midnight.

We quickly found out a few emails I had sent regarding our trip being for a small group paid off as every one's room, except ours, was upgraded numerous levels, so that we were all within a few doors of each other versus across the property with some in the entry level room and others of us in the middle tier French Village. This was also probably due to our Sandals Signature status, which is their version of a frequent guest.

Just a quick note about location. Now this month they were to open a whole other section called the Italian Village, so I am only speaking to before this (Jan20 & waterpark opens Mar15). If we were to go again we would again pay to be in the French Village. Our buffet restaurant, Giuseppe's, never had a wait where the Main Village buffet, Reflections, always did. Especially at breakfast time. Our pool was never crowded and even though no water features it was the largest, so lots of space with a swim up bar, a kiddie pool, large hot tub, and beach entry. And with a bottom floor room we found our monitors worked from the room to the back row of chairs and the hot tub. Another advantage to bottom floor is a patio, where upper storied have sliders, but no balconies. The French Village is also closest to Pirate's Island, home to Bobby D's the 50's diner and the kids' pool. We did not mind we were the furthest rooms from the beach as with all the eating and drinking the walk was needed.
Regarding restaurants. Our adult-only favorite was Sapodillas for great food. For fun and laughs...Kimono's. And if you do the Sushi Bar it is merely OK...UNTIL you let the chef know you love Sushi and let him go free-lance and then it was really good. Arizona's was our lunch spot as they always had jerk chicken on the BBQ and paper plates and plastic cutlery to dine pool-side. And our evening routine quickly began to include Bobby D's for the kids as well as the late night stop as it is open from 11AM-6AM. We would take them to dinner and then drop them at Kid's Camp which was open until 9PM (their website says until 6PM, but not that case when we were there) and then we would enjoy a dinner without them. Another do not miss was Friday night when they the meal moved onto the beach where there were about 20 food stands set-up serving local delights as well as the usual munchkin favorites of chicken nuggets, etc.. Also two bars, ice sculptures, bean bags tossed around bonfires, and huge stage show with the Sesame Street characters as well as various contests and fun. And if you are looking for an adult only drink the happening place was the bar in the main village right across from Reflections.

Kids Camp...remember I have a two and four year old, so they were in the youngest area, but camp does go all the way up to teens. Security was amazing as was hygiene at the facility. The staff was great with the kids...quickly learning their names and their individual needs. We generally used camp every morning, so we could dive or do some other sport, and in the evening's for dinner. Morning time activities included such things as exercise with Elmo, dance lessons with Zoe, rubber duckie hunt with Ernie, and baking with Cookie. Remember, this place is affiliated with Sesame Street. So every other evening there was a 1/2hr stage show in the French Village which usually involved child participation.

On to the activities which are included on the resort. We windsurfed, hobby-cat'ed, scuba-dived, water slid, swam, built sand castles, worked out in the gym, snorkeled, took glass bottom boat rides (in fact kids 4 and older got to do it one day at camp as well), played volleyball....and the list went on. There were numerous dive options...1 tank...2 tank...etc. We stuck to 1 tank dives as they stayed in the Bay and therefore we could be out and back before picking up the kids for lunch. 2 tank dives went around the south side of the island and took from about 8AM-2PM. The dive gear and crews were really good. We had to do a brief skills test before being allowed to go out, but it only took 1/2hr. The diving was good, but not as great as we had hoped and knew it could be. We learned that a private owner who had brought in a bunch of sand to build an island on the point had the breaks put on and then Hurricane Ike had washed all his sand into the Bay therefore leaving quite a bit deposited on the reefs. But you will see from the slideshow still quite a few neat things to see. We also took snorkel gear from the resort and ventured about 5minute walk up the Beach to a reef discovery zone where our kids even got to try their hand at checking out the sea life.

The staff was amazing. Many getting to know us and our children by name. We could easily ask for special items not available on the menu or buffet without an issue. You could also ask for anything to go...to take back to your room...or in my case to a parade one evening my kids wanted to see, but I wasn't done eating yet. They were always checking in on us to see that everything was OK. And all of this is done without the expectation of a tip...as it is not allowed.

So after 8 nights we were ready, but still sad to head home. Everyone enjoyed it and agree we will return one day.