Tag Archives: Utah

June 27, 2016 · 1:52 am

Mom Camp becomes Dad Camp Days 14 & 15

For these days, Mom Camp was on the road again.  This time it was a road trip to Brianhead Utah to reach cooler temperatures and even cooler friends.

After an easy 3 and 1/2 hour drive (I say easy, because after a 23 hour trip home from NOLA this was a piece of cake.), we arrived at a lovely cabin in the woods to join another family who will henceforth be called The Brianhead Bunch.  Some yummy steaks, an outdoor campfire with ‘smores finished off the day.

The following day it was time to rent ATVs and hit the wilderness. Although The Brianhead Bunch were experienced ATV drivers, The Captain and I had never been on them.  I will also admit my outdoor skills really are not superior.  In college, I once managed to capsize a jet ski, LOL.  I was slightly nervous at first.  I took a quick spin on an open quad and we eventually rented an ATV with roll bar and seemed a little more secure (other than the roll bar, I am not actually sure it was one bit safer.  I was able to pretend I was safer and took to calling it my ‘golf cart’.)

Lunches were packed and we hit the dirt roads. Cinco rode with me and The Princess was co-pilot with The Captain.  At first, things were pretty easy.  We arrived at a lovely visita.Things got a little hairy after that as we drove up a rocky hill.  My strategy was slow and steady, but at one point the ATV significantly tipped to the right.  Cinco began crying and wouldn’t stop reminding me that I had in fact once capsized a jet ski.  In true kid style, he went back and forth from crying with terror to signing Highway to Hell.  In my typical mom style, I kept telling him I had not killed him yet and could he please calm down.  I was then forced to put one of my arms around him to calm him down.  That’s when things took a turn for the worse.


With all the crying, singing and chaos in my ATV my nerves were a little frayed and I ALMOST drove into a tree.  I tried to back up, but then the rocks started sliding underneath the vehicle.  I decided enough was enough and flagged The Captain to get me out of a sticky spot. Thankfully, he drove like a pro and got me back on track.

The drive was easier downhill.  And, Cinco stopped crying on the return trip and started singing Highway to Hell in a far more playful and jovial manner.

We saw a few more natural treasurers:


But the best moment came near the end of the day when we went though a big puddle with everyone laughing and having a good time.

A big thank you to the Brianhead bunch for a new experience and good time. Alls well that ends well.

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July 2, 2013 · 4:55 pm

Water Work Out @ Red Mountain Spa

Even mom needs a little off time and this is never more so than when summer and Mom Camp are in full swing.  I am pretty lucky that my mom lives just down the street and I can take advantage of her excellent free babysitting and dog watching!  This time, I left the kids with grandma  for a day and The Captain for a weekend and ran off with Jillian to Red Mountain Resort in Utah.

Here of course, I must thank The Captain and my mother for making this possible!!!

Jillian and I arrived with only minutes to spare.  You see Jillian decided she wanted to take the 3:30 pm ‘water workout’ titled Off the Deep End.IMG_2007

The last time took any sort of ‘water workout’ was when I was preggo with The Princess.  I had this odd-ball notion that working out in the water would help avoid stretch marker.  The water would make my ever burgeoning belly more buoyant and cause gravity to pull down on my skin less and this would reduce stretch makes.  Of course, stretch marks are related to the quick-growing belly and genetics not gravity.  But, you know it was my nutty theory.

I lugged my preggo self down to the pool in my whale covering bathing suit. I quickly discovered it was me and the over 60 crowd doing rather pathetic jumping jacks in the pool.  

I did end up getting the stretch marks in my 8th month and decided not to rely on my crazy theories.  I went on the net to rely on other people’s crazy theories.  Low and behold, if you rub pure vitamin E oil on the area it will reduce the marks.  I am happy to say, they quickly disappeared–no thanks to the water aerobics.

The next time I encountered a ‘water workout’ was on a boutique cruise I took.  The ‘Sports Director’  (if we can call him that because  he only led water aerobics and helped guests climb the mast) held a class in the rather tiny on deck pool.  Given my preggo flirtation with a ‘water workout’, I took a pass.

All this brings us to me, Jillian, and Off Deep End. It was certainly not a geriatric ‘water workout’.  There were Pilates moves in the water and both my abs and arms had their share of action.  I can’t say I was out of breath, but I certainly got a workout.

Jillian went the next day for another aqua class while my narcoleptic self took a nap.  According to Jillian it was not as good, so I think I made the right choice.

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