New Year's Celebration

Ray and I spent a nice quiet New Year 2010 holiday at Little America, Snowbasin, Brenden's birthday, and topped it off with a wonderful Brunch at Grand America. Thanks Ray for being so awesome and taking such good care of me. We had a GREAT time! I didn't take too many pictures and we were lucky that Ray had his phone when we went to Snowbasin. Above is a picture of Ray with the moose at the entrance to Snowbasin.

We wanted to ride the tram to the top of the mountain and have lunch but we were too late, the tram closes at 4:00 PM so they wouldn't let foot traffic up the mountain after 3:30 PM. We were sad that we couldn't go up the mountain but that sadness was tempered by the fact that we had a really fun time on the tubing hill.

Here's Ray at the top of the tubing hill getting ready to go down. This was the greatest thing ever...we had a tow rope that you hooked the tubes on and it pulled you up the mountain. The tubing hills were groomed and safe so you could go really fast but not worry about hitting any other tubers or flying off the tube. It was GREAT! We had so much fun!!!!

It was snowing most of the time we were tubing which made everyone on the mountain very happy. I laughed, screamed down the mountain, raced Ray and won (once), enjoyed the leisurly ride up the mountain and truly had a marvelous time!

The entire 4 days were so much fun. We started our little mini vacation by checking into Little America on New Year's Eve. We unpacked and then got dressed up for our fun dinner. We went to the dining room and we enjoyed an amazing appetizer - it was a seafood variety with crab cakes, scallops, shrimp, and salmon. YUM! Then we had a yummy spinach salad with bacon, parmesan cheese, and a vinagrette dressing. I ordered the tenderloin steak and lobster tail with extra vegetables. It was SOOOOO good. I was stuffed and couldn't even think about eating dessert - although we did talk about the wonderful variety of desserts that were available.

After dinner we went back to the room and changed into our warm clothes so we could head downtown to see the fireworks. The people watching was so much fun - there are some crazy people out on New Year's Eve night. Some were not very smart in their clothing choices for a winter night in Salt Lake City! Others were wearing clothes that barely covered their ample bodies, and then there were those that had been drinking most of the night and were already so far gone I don't think they even knew where they were. It was quite an experience. The fireworks lasted just a few short minutes - I was a little bit disappointed but I really would have been disappointed if I had paid the $15 for the EVE celebration and that was all the fireworks they had. I'll be interested to see what others thought. We were grateful that we only had to travel a few blocks and we were back at the hotel - safe and sound for the night. We didn't have to drive anywhere and that was a good feeling.

Friday morning we got up and went to the exercise room - it is a wonderful room equipped with treadmills, bicycles, weight machines, eliptical machines, and hand weights. We got a good workout - went back to the room and got ready for the day. We headed down to the restaurant for the New Year's buffet - another day with some really good food. They had a fruit bar that was wonderful - tons of fresh fruit in every variety. We also had lox and bagels, an omelet, and I had a yummy crepe. I was once again so full! We went back to the room and then got dressed for a day at Snowbasin.

We had another wonderful meal that evening - I had the prime rib and it was cooked to perfection. This time we ordered the bread pudding with rum sauce to go. I don't usually like bread pudding but the bread pudding at Little America is so good...I think it has something to do with the rum sauce.

The next day we had MaKayla come to stay with us - her mom and dad were in Arizona to see the Green Bay Packers play. We went swimming with MaKayla and then we headed up to Layton to see Brenden for his birthday. I can't believe that Brenden is 7 years old already. He is an amazing young man - he is smart, he can read so well for a 1st grader, he is a wonderful big brother and takes very good care of Bridger and Bracken, he has a big heart and is a friend to everyone he meets, he is also very athletic - soccer comes easily to him. We are so blessed to have Brenden in our family! We are grateful to be his grandparents.

We had MaKayla stay with us at the hotel on Saturday night - she would have been in the swimming pool the entire time we were there if we would have let her - she is a little fish!

Sunday morning we went to the Sunday Brunch at the Grand. Crab, shrimp, sushi, prime rib, omelets, shrimp cocktail, smoothies, pancakes, waffles, french toast, crapes, a chocolate bar, salads, fresh fruit, and so much more. It was an amazing feast. What a great way to end a wonderful vacation!

Again I can only say thank you to Ray for working so hard and making this time together possible. He is wonderful and I am so blessed to have him in my life! We have so much fun together and I love him more every day! If I could have looked into the future when I married him and been able to see what our life together would be like I wouldn't have believed how amazing it is. After almost 33 years of marriage I continue to fall in love with him over and over again! I am looking forward to another wonderful year together.

I hope you all had a great New Year celebration and that you are looking forward to the wonderful things that 2010 will can bring!

Happy, Happy New Year!

Cathy