Picnic Basket {Then & Now}

We had the loveliest picnic on Saturday to celebrate Father's Day. I will do a full post with tons of photos, but for now, a little then and now.

Juliet, 3 months

Juliet, 7 months

Juliet, 15 months

Juliet, 28 months 

PS- scroll down for the last of our Park City posts.

Last Day of Park City

We didn't have big plans for our last day in Park City, but because my Dad had the condo the entire week, we didn't need to check out early, so we used the entire last day on vacation mode. And then when it was all over, we were only thirty minutes from home! Perfect!

That morning we wanted to enjoy the pool one last time and decided to invite over E's sister and brother-in-law and the kid's cousin Emilia. They live near Park City, so it made sense to have a visit with them while up there.

James was so excited to show Emilia all the waterfalls. He does everything in his power to take very good care of his little cousin. It's pretty much the sweetest ever. 

Juliet and I wore our matching suits a lot while up there and got so many sweet comments on how cute we looked. I agree she was the cutest girl there.

James was intent on showing Emilia what a cool waterfall this was. She grinned at him from ear to ear.

After we were all totally waterlogged we went up to our room and made lunch with Chelsea, Joe and Emilia. It was such a lovely way to spend lunch on a Tuesday. Soon after we decided we'd had enough of the pool and needed something else. Juliet was begging to go on the chair lift again. Begging. So we decided to go on the Alpine Slide again.

This time, with experience under our belt, we all went faster. James and E were teamed up again and Juliet absolutely adored every second. I swear she could have done it a dozen more times and been totally happy.

Instead of trying to nap either of them again we got the brilliant idea to take a little drive in the mountains. Right past Park City is my cabin, so after we'd loaded into the car I said "let's just go to the cabin and play in the meadow!"

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that I absolutely love "our" meadow at the cabin. LOVE. It may be up there in my top three favorite places in the entire wold (Balzano Italy and Kyoto Japan are my other two favorites).

With my lack of frog catching success the day before, I knew I needed to step up my game and catch a frog for the kids in the meadow (I've been known to catch dozens!). As soon as we got there I didn't catch one, but two sweet frogs! I wanted a photo with Juliet holding them, because James said "no way" but this was the best I got. E placed the frogs in her hands and the hopped away, back into the marshy meadow and were gone in a flash. Oh well, next time.

I was intent on catching another one but never seemed to find them. It was so funny, there I was in the water, and the mud having a great time and neither kid wanted to join me. Who are these people?!

James was excited to go off exploring with Daddy.

Juliet often sticks with me on the weekends. James is so insistent on being on a "daddy date" that I get this little love. I don't mind. She's a great little buddy and much more willing to pose for photos than her brother.

'Xplorin.

This kid and his big sticks. He's loved big sticks since he was 18 months old. Now he begs to bring them home, and we always say yes. Needless to say, we have quite a stick collection in our backyard.

Finally got her in!

Soon we had two kids having total and complete meltdowns. James was begging for a nap. "I don't want to play, I want a nap in the dark!" he cried. So we packed up the over tired kids and headed back to the hotel for some tv time while E and I packed up our belongings.

Luckily some tv down time did the trick and the kids were up for one last vacation meal on the way home. Both E and I love Squatters and everyone (even the kids) happily ate a big meal before heading home for bed. And these fish tacos?! Can we discuss the perfectness of this meal?!

She fell asleep two minutes into the car ride home, and although woke up when we tried to get her out, fell back asleep, in her clothes only minutes later in her bed. What a perfect ending to a perfect mini vacation.

The best day of our Park City trip!

To make our Park City vacation feel like the real deal, E took Monday and Tuesday off of work to extend the weekend. On Monday morning we woke up and ate and didn't head to the pool. Instead we piled into the car and drove about 45 minutes out to the Uinta Mountains.

The Uintas are the highest mountains in Utah and someplace E and I really love. Getting to them from Salt Lake City takes well over an hour, but from Park City it was luckily under an hour.

A spot I've been dying to take James for over a year was this place, Provo Falls. I saw a similar shot of these falls on my brother's IG a year ago and have been wanting to take my waterfall loving boy ever since.

The Provo River Falls isn't one enormous fall, instead it's about six or eight mini falls. Many are connected by a dozen feet of calm water, or a couple hundred feet. Again and again the river fell. The strong current and lots of side streams (you can see one below) made it absolutely mesmerizing.

This boy was HAPPY beyond measure.

Morning light in the Uintas had be captivated. Remember I backpacked in the Uintas when I was pregnant with James? This is the first time I've been back. Five years. Pretty sad.

Waterfall family photo. Look at the water!

Riverside picnic. Or maybe I should be more specific. Top of waterfall picnic, which is the best place to be.

This girl was less than impressed with the water, more impressed by trying to hike away from us at top speed. 

After we finished up with Provo Falls we found a secluded Uinta lake and got out again to explore.

Juliet picked wildflowers.

And got soaked.

Don't fall down baby girl!

The meadow was absolutely lovely, filled with wet marshy mud and thousands of wildflowers. The new Keens are thanks to my Dad, he noticed I was hiking in flip flops on our outings with kids because I wanted to get in the water. New Keens are the best birthday gift ever.

iPhone Panorama. You may need to click it to see E and Juliet.

Golden mushroom found in the woods.

And our little waterfall loving boy found another waterfall to enchant him.

We heard frogs (and one thing I LOVE is catching frogs) so into the water I went. I discovered that the shallow lake was... quite warm! I I was able to convince my hesitant kid to join me in there.

Love this shot. This is how I often look with the kids five days a week while E's at work. Juliet grumpy and too tired to walk so she's on my shoulders sulking. James somewhere nearby (or not so near) with a stick that he's found.

Again we went back to the hotel after our extremely fun morning and tried to nap the kids. AGAIN James fell right asleep and Juliet pinched E's nose and pulled his eyelashes for two hours. We decided on Park City Main Street for dinner, hoping Juliet would hold out. She looks exhausted, doesn't she?

Our first date 15+ years ago was on Main Street. That day when we were only high school seniors, we ate at Main Street Pizza and Noodle. It didn't disappoint, and everyone, even the kids, slicked their plates clean.

A visit to the Main Street chocolate shop after dinner is always a must.

The kids chose their first ever rock candies, and were clearly thrilled with their choices. James said "this is the biggest sharpest lollipop ever!"

Yum!

My fella.

Goodnight Main Street! We are off to bed. Well, at least Juliet is, I decided to take James down to the pool. Nothing better than swimming past his bedtime and having a s'more to finish off the night.