Park City - A Month Back In The Mountains - Weeks 3 and 4

We honestly cannot believe we have been here a month already.  Each day we wake up and just keep plowing forward with house items.  Repairing, maintaining, organizing, replacing etc.  We had no idea it would take this long and be such a consuming task.  The kids have been awesome considering Ashley and I are busy all day everyday.  But to tell you the truth we think Alex is liking it. She has her own room with a door, art supplies and loves not living in the apartment living room in Sayulita.  Trace is so ready to get back to the water he might pop but has discovered hiking and biking to be a good temporary substitute along with the occasional trip the local reservoir to paddle on a borrowed inflatable SUP.

The Aspen Lane house as of July 20th.

The Aspen Lane house June 24th.

The backyard now.

The backyard June 24th.

We have stained the exterior and the decks and have repainted most of the interior and replaced door hardware. All the interior carpet has been replaced and soon will have new kitchen countertops and flooring. The fun part about the carpet was that the installer is originally from Tepic but has been in the States for 30 years. So much to do still but Ashley feels like we are gaining on it. Me, on the other hand feel like the donut guy. Day in and day out just working on the house.  Aka "making the donuts".

Alex "helping" with painting her room.

We were able to meet up with our neighbors at a monthly get together held up the street. It was great to catch up with everyone, laugh a bit and just shake our heads about how fast time has gone by. Everyone is still the same. Good people. We have seen some rain as well. Utah is so dry this summer with a poor snow pack from the winter. It was good to see the rainclouds we are missing in Sayulita while we have been here.

Alex' rain dance 

Alex and Trace still like to find local Geocaches.  It is even better when the kids need to hike to find them.  Even BETTER when they are located in the neighborhood trail network.

Trace still misses the water but is eager to go out and hike in the mornings with me.  He needs the physical part of it but I think really likes to be in the woods with the tall trees and the views offered as a reward for the effort.  He was down for a few days with a trampoline injury but has healed quickly.  He has shown some real interest in mountain biking but we are without a bike or a way to transport bikes to a trailhead to get him out there.  A bit frustrating since we know he would love it and it would be great crosstraining for his water sports.

We met up with some of Ashley's long time friends who live in Salt Lake City.  We spent the afternoon at the the Jordanelle Reservoir cocktailing while the kids played on paddle boards.  It was cold with some rain but eventually the clouds moved on and we set up camp, had dinner and spent the night in the campground.  This may have been Ashley's last camping trip.  Setting up camp, too much wine, peeing behind the bushes and sleeping on the ground is just is not her "thing" anymore.  Our friends, on the other hand, have an awesome pull behind camper to stay in.  Fortunately our camping gear was still in great shape from being packed away 7 years ago.  Kids liked it though and got play with "Moki".

Camping with Carrie, Andrew and Moki

The kids enjoyed the camping enough that they teamed up with some of the neighborhood kids and had a second campout in our back yard. 

Tent construction happens.

Alex has always remarked about how her birthday is in August and her close friends are always away for the summer.  This makes having any kind of party difficult.  So, she decided to throw a mini-party with her friends on the street plus a few of the parents.  She worked on her cake for hours only to find out that baking at higher elevation sometimes is unpredictable.  One set of her grandparents were also in town so it was good to share the mini event with them as well and introduce them to neighbors they may not have met before.  Our new carpet was just a few days old and here we are having cake with blue frosting and red wine.  A fun couple hours.  This little house was always a great gathering spot.

Alex and her blue whale tail cake.

Ashley is back on the work schedule.  She flies out after dinner.  Has a short layover where she may or may not be able to catch some sleep and then comes home mid morning.  She packs in three of these overnight trips over the weekend so that she can be home during the week.  Depending on her energy when she gets home she will pitch in with the house or go through the 1000s of photos we have and try to figure what we have or do not have uploaded to the Cloud.  She has been able to see the kids everyday for almost 6 weeks.  Very special for her.  We don't think that has happened since maternity leave.

Ashley's photo project.

Trace is always trying to find the sun.

There has always been music in the mountains in the Park City.  The long running Wednesday night free concert in the park was moved to Deer Valley years ago since it attracted so many people each week.  It was fun to go back to one and there were so many people!  We have seen some great shows on the beach and in the jungle of Sayulita over the years but it was fun to sit at the base of a ski area to listen to music again.  We joined our long time neighbor, Corrie, and her kids for the show.

Corrie and Ashley

Free reggae in the mountains.

We listed the house for rent and the response has been "underwhelming".  There is lots of competition at the moment and it is making us a bit nervous.  There are "nicer" places out there to be had and they are not moving either.  We are completing some important items this week at the house and some of the grandparents are in town helping us out a few hours a day.  We are already looking at the end of the month and realizing we may need to stay an extra week to get more things done.  Not much to go back to in Sayulita since the contractor's efforts have been minimal since we have not been there to see and influence progress.  Trace and I are eager to get back on the water but here we stay for the time being.

Reflections for weeks 3 and 4:

-It is sooo quiet.  No trucks, roosters, music, people selling stuff etc.  Just silence.  Weird.

-It is super expensive to feed ones family here.  We stop by the grocery to pick up just a few things and dropping close to $100 USD is easy...and that is before the stop at the liquor store.

-We do not recognize anyone anymore.  I spent 17 years here and have not seen anyone I really know from that time.

-Park City has grown a bunch and is very busy and we have heard the same from others.  Whether it is the addition of Vail Resorts to the area, mountain lifestyle or PC finally receiving the attention from the world it craved for so long, things are booming here.  

-Real estate values are shocking considering what we paid for our house 14 years ago.  A "entry level" price for a family home is about $600,000 and even those are few and are often in less desirable locations.

-Park City has a more diverse population than what I remember.  With all kinds of tech and industry coming to the Salt Lake City and surrounding areas I have seen so many more kinds of people than just the stereotypical white Mormon "Utahn".  A great thing!

-Did I mention I love the Home Depot here?  Yes I have and I said it again.

-The kids have never seen daily mail service before.  Odd for them to see someone stopping and leaving something at our house everyday.

Off to hike with the kids while mom catches up on some sleep then more house work.