the exotic smith family vacation

took place in park city over the 24th of july weekend this summer, which was

not quite the cruise we'd gotten our hopes up for when early planning talks first

started before heidi and austin were r.m.'s, but it was a vacation nonetheless.

most of the weekend looked like this:

there were more walks taken around where our condo was located than

we can count on both of our hands and feet combined, and plenty of card

games and delicious meals eaten around the kitchen table, in true smith style.

sunday afternoon, while the rest of the family was either tracking down a church

block to attend or reading their scriptures, richard and i left for a walk...

around the park city farmer's market.

we've never attended church on vacation, and stubbornly we didn't feel like

starting that new tradition on this trip.  we like to worship by taking in all that our

temporary surroundings have to offer (justification/best excuse we've come up w/ so far).

so, we recruited tyson and hit the town.

we made it to the end of main st. where there was a stage set up for live musical

performances, where we saw this unique one-man-band from southern california.

he played a stomp-box, didgeridoos, guitar, chimes, and harmonica.  impressive.

i found a killer pina colada

and we made our first of many stops at the rocky mountain chocolate factory.

i think its safe to say that those caramel apples were the highlight

of the weekend.  no joke.

there are no pictures to prove that our eventful float down the provo river

actually occured, but it surely did.  i blame the river's name and location

for the fact that the boat with a pregnant woman and toddler sank like the titanic,

and for the cows (a.k.a. bear, according to liz) that were clearly working to

infect us all with giardia.  lucky for us, they were unsuccessful.

on our last day, dale treated us all to a ride down the mountain on the

alpine slide.  there was some serious arm-twisting in the beginning, but

eventually all in our party agreed to participate.

after sliding down the mountainside, and a long, awkward conversation

about where to eat, we made our way back to main st. for a delicious

mexican lunch...

and one last trip to rocky mountain for treats to get us home with

just the right amount of sugar coursing through our

family vacationed-out veins.