Novel size re-cap - pics pending

I have an SD card full of awesome pics of my parent's visit to us over the last 5 days.
Sadly, our previously dead Mac that magically revived itself for a couple weeks was just teasing us. It's really dead now.
But I can't wait til it's replacement to post a little 'bout our "vacation" with mom and dad... so here it goes:
Wednesday they arrived in their white spaceship to planet Vernal. It's the first time anyone has ever stayed over at our home here. Sad huh. Even sadder - my favorite part about this whole visit was that it motivated me to do some suuurrrious cleaning/organizing/decorating to our little shack. It still is no "Idea House," or "Street of Dreams" winner, but Brian's statement says it all: "wow chels - you're like a homemaker magician." Meaning that we no longer have boxes of clothes in the kitchen and boxes of dishes in the bedrooms.
I made lunch for Mom and Dad.... not knowing they stopped at Whole Foods' spectacular salad bar in Park City on their way... oh well. Leftover White Bean Chicken Chili for me! We watched the Brianna-circus for quite a while. She warmed right up to them! Dad knew how to win her heart - he handed her HIS CAR KEYS. They were best friends after that. Nonny worked her nonny magic - lots of QT - signing songs and reading books... I had Brianna well-trained to perform some tricks for them. She sings "Row, row, row your boat"... but just the first 3 words. Over and over again: "whoa, whoa, whoa.... whoa, whoa, whoa.... whoa, whoa, whoa..." And she does high-fives, gives hugs, sings E-I-E-I-O (though all those vowels get a little jumbled up), does a few animal sounds (snake, dog, lion), waves, points to a few body parts on command, says HI and BYE ... and grabs her bottom with a surprised face when she toots. That's my favorite.
The Brianna-show was paused while we went to th Rec Center here. Brian took Brianna swimming while Mom and I did a kickboxing class and dad did the treadmill. We all went down the big slide...but dad took quite awhile coming down... still not sure what happened, but he flew out laughing. Hmm. We got home and did Brianna's bedtime routine. They got to see Brianna - always the exhibitionist - run around air-drying. Then Mom brought all the goods to make a super-cookie. There were like 20 ingredients, it was amazing. So we enjoyed those while playing Scrabble and Cranium.
Thursday morning we again escaped to the gym - Brianna hung out in the childcare area (which - thankfully - she is now ENJOYING!) while mom and I did the power toning class and Brian swam. Dad stayed home fixing our broken couch! I love my dad! Except when he takes Brian away to "go to Lowe's", then we find Wendys wrappers in the car.... no wonder they weren't too hungry for our homemade pizza lunch....
We made an attempt to go to the Dinosaur Museum, but it was a little too DEAD there to justify the $6 entry fee (I'm so witty!)
I took mom to a hangout of Brianna and mine.... the Tri-County Family Center. Basically it's a place where parents can take their kids to go play with educational toys and even rent them out. It's really neat. There ARE a few perks to rural living.
Rumors of snow in the mountain passes made us decide to take off early for Bountiful - Brian and Dad in a rental, mom and I and Brianna in their car. Good QT for everyone. Dad and Brian rented our ski gear for the next day while mom and I met up with our Craigslist dealer to buy 3 all-access Snowbird passes for $40! Reg price is $69! Oh - and we might have all stopped at Daniel's Summit on the way for their homemade fudge.
We arrived at Kit's gorgeous home near the top of the Bountiful hill in time to hang out with family for a bit before bedtime... had to get some sleep so we had energy for.... Friday SKIING! It was seriouslyseriously the BEST ski trip I've EVEREVER had. Ever. The mountains had been dumped on the previous 3 days, then the sun broke through on Friday for us to enjoy 45 degree weather and fresh powder! It wasn't crowded at all, the runs were perfect, I didn't get sunburned or have any serious falls, and only got lost twice! (huge accomplishment for me!) We were up there for 7 hours and I totally enjoyed every second. The views at 11,000 ft were breathtaking. I hope I can post the pictures soon! The best part was that I got to hang out all day with my two favorite men. And I felt great knowing my precious bebe was in the hands of the planet's best babysitter. THANKYOU MOM! Though she was quite happy to hand her over when we returned :) I loved seeing Brianna's face light up when we came back.
Friday night we went to a place I've been dying to go to - One World Everybody Eats cafe in Salt Lake. There's only 3 in the country - another being in Spokane, ironically. You'll have to google it for the explanation of how it works. It's an amazing concept that would solve the hunger and health problems on the planet if everyone adopted it.
Saturday morning mom and I escaped to SugarHouse park in SLC for a 5K Fun Run. And it was just that - SO FUN! Mom and I placed 1st and 3rd, respectively. I won't share how many people there were... suffice it to say I had to stop after 35.... (like - I HAD to stop... :) We won a gift certificate to the Red Rock Brewery so we headed over right after to use it. Oh wait....there was a stop in between to Whole Foods. Did you know they do samples on Saturday? Lots of them. And they're really good - I made sure of it at least 4 times at each station.
We came back to Kit's home to relieve Brian of his child care duties and hand him our restaurant leftovers and Whole Foods treats. He was happy to be fed - though Phyllis's amazing Italian Cream Cake had filled him up well at breakfast. Brian likes my relatives.
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing. Said goodbye in the afternoon so we could do our Vernal journey with some daylight. Stopped at Grandma's on the way out to give her a bday gift (agave nectar from WF) - she's 87 and still kickin!
The long drive "home" (that's a debatable title these days) was bittersweet. I miss my parents - I lovelovelove being with them and seeing them love on Brianna. But it's nice to just be our little family again.
Look forward to more adventures with Nonny and Papa in July when we road-trip it up North!