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Vacation Rental and soccer {Park City, Heber, Midway, Utah}

What an enjoyable past few days we spent in the Park City area.  My daughter, Maizy played soccer with her Logan Lynx U16 team in the Park City Extreme Cup and took silver in their division(Yay!).  Instead of driving more than 2 hours back and forth everyday or putting six of us up in a hotel(not enjoyable and expensive to have to eat out every meal in Park City), we opted to rent a nice little house 23 miles south of Park City, just across the road from the Deer Creek Reservoir, in Charleston.  It was a last minute find, but a perfect inexpensive one for us.  We are asked often by others how we always seem to find the best little places to stay on our “soccer vacations.”  Here’s our secret(not really) write this one down… “Vacation Rentals, insert city of choice HERE,”  now Google it!  After sifting through all of the over posted condo listings, you’ll find the one that is just right for you and your family.  At least I always seem to.

If our afternoons would have been free, we could have spent a couple long days playing at the Deer Creek Reservoir State Park, which had beach access only 5 minutes further south of our house.  Instead, we lounged around the house watching cartoons, playing cribbage, dollies, and iPods(eventhough not very strong, this rental had wifi.  Maizy will testify otherwise).  We all ventured over to the quaint old school park across the road, but it was during a nice evening shower and didn’t play much.  We actually hid from the rain underneath the very large evergreens and under the pavilion before running back home and getting ready for soccer.  Maizy did take the boys back over a couple times to experience the old metal slide and play frisbee in the nice grassy area.

I loved the very large windows in this house.  With their simple sheer white valences as an option to cover, they let in so much light.  They gave the feel of being in a much larger space than this little house lets on from it’s outside appearance.  It was very well stocked with blankets, books, videos, and toys.  There was even a wood burning stove in the living room for those not too far off cold days.  Of course, we didn’t need it but that didn’t stop Oedi from begging to have a fire in the house.  

Late Friday afternoon, the two littles laid down for a much needed nap.  The rest of us shared laughs over a spaghetti dinner, and then woke the others for a ride into town(Midway/Heber) looking for something to do.  Lucky for us it was “Fair Days” in Heber.  A little carnival was set up, along with a rodeo and fireworks show.  We took it all in, then headed back to the house for popcorn and a good flick.  Soccer woke us up early with a scheduled  8:00 a.m. game.  Maizy’s team won 4-1 in the semi-finals and advanced to the championship game at 3:00 p.m.  Maizy played with great determination, fast as a cheetah, playing more than half of the balls from her head(it would seem).  The Lynx fell short of the win, but with their heads held high they accepted their awarded silver metal.

We look forward to renting this lovely little abode, next year, for our soccer vacation stay during the Park City Extreme Cup 2015.
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Summer Games 2014 {Cedar City, UT}

Soccer leads us to Cedar City(southwest UT), every year in June, for Utah Summer Games.  Four days of soccer, opening ceremonies, THEE best fireworks show EVER, and other adventures around the coolest red rocks(last year, we visited Cedar Breaks and Zion) and sites to see.

     This year, we rented a little house referred to as “The Cottage,” by it’s owners.  It’s a quaint little two bedroom home on 200 east, in town.  Just off busy Main Street, with a nice little fenced in side yard bordered with beautiful rose bushes.  Unfortunately, we missed the peak bloom of the bushes, by maybe a week, but I did manage to find a handful of roses to snip and display in the kitchen.  The boys were so excited to find the cottage had a cool mail slot, through the wall, next to the red front door.  They were pumped when the mailman came to the door(Brad convinced him when he was in route to the neighbors box) with (junk)mail.  A big thank you Mr. Mailman.

     The weather was warm… low 90’s, but with the high speed wind, it maybe felt like mid 70’s.  This left most of us pretty weathered and sun beaten, but it’s better than rain. Have you ever witnessed a “Dust Devil?”  We saw so many, to and from the games.  Very cool.

     Brad found a newly volunteer built play structure, just south of town, called “The Park Discovery.”  We took the three littles there, while Maizy and Hope spent this time with their soccer mates.
We ventured off to a nationally registered historical site 30 or so miles north, in Parowan, called the “Parowan Gap.”  There we found the petroglyphs inscribed in the rock faces, which are believed by archaeoastronomers to have been marked to help early civilizations understand seasonal changes and allow them to plan their personal fertility and birthing cycles.  With the summer solstice, next week, we went at sunset to feel the amazement of past generations speak to us through their drawings.  The wind was very gusty.  The sun was so intense and fell brilliantly right in the center of the gap and into a very heavy cloud.  It glowed pink, through the cloud, as we drove off down the deserted Gap Road.  We were the only ones there to witness it’s greatness, on this day, in this gathering place of meaning, so many years before.  Laik and Oedi both fell victim to the sandman, on our trip to the Gap, and didn’t wake up until we were on our way back home.

     Maizy’s U14 Logan Lynx team had a bit of an uphill battle, it would seem, right out of the gates.  A couple too many losses managed to put them in the running for nothing more than the bronze medal, if they could pull off a win, in the end.  They played their hearts out and kept their wits about them against a VERY dirty, foul-mouthed team and pulled through with the WIN! 3-1!  It might as well have been a gold medal.  Being the victors of the bronze, in the end, was a great way to finish Summer Games.
We were unable to attend the medal ceremony, due to an awesome opportunity I was given to be a “second shooter” with a top local, Northern UT photographer, Kylee Ann, of Kylee Ann Photography.  More to come, about the wedding on the next post.