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Midway Ice Castles: Fun Activities in Salt Lake City (Winter)

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Being new to the city it was hard to figure out where the fun stuff happens, especially fun kid-friendly stuff. I’ve been hard at work going on adventures with my girls to find fun, interesting, and enjoyable activities. Winter time is especially hard. Sure, there’s skiing, everyone knows skiing. But, did you know about the Midway Ice Castle? They open every winter as soon as it gets cold enough and they stay open until it’s just not cold enough.

About Midway Ice Castle

I’ve heard that every year they get bigger and better. I’m not sure I can verify that but it is definitely bigger than five years ago. Five years ago was the first time I heard about it when someone recommended I get my bridals done there. I did, they were gorgeous. This was also right after Frozen and I had several dumbstruck little girls who thought I was the princess. Yes, I got pictures with them. No, I never saw them again.

The ice castle is located near the Homestead Resort. The tickets are available online. There is a standby line but due to the popularity they urge you to purchase the tickets ahead of time.

This year I was again impressed by the beauty and the cold. Here’s some information to help you decide if this is the family adventure for you:

I’d say the Midway Ice Castle are appropriate for Ages 4 on up and those not super sensitive to cold.

Pros

  • It was absolutely stunning. A castle made of ice is as gorgeous as it sounds.
  • The slides for 42″ and taller were actually a lot of fun, even for the adults.
  • When it gets darker there are some beautiful light shows on the ice that is perfect for photo ops.
  • There are some beautiful fountains.
  • There are plenty of employees to help you find your way.
  • They’ve streamlined the process of getting tickets right to your phone so you can get right in when you get there.
  • Did I mention how beautiful it was?
  • You can purchase hot cocoa and other snacks at their snack bar.

Cons:

  • The tickets are not on the cheaper end, I recommend visiting during the week if at all possible for the cheaper pricing.
  • Since they’ve joined with the Homestead Resort it’s easier to find but they also have lots of ways to make money. For example, the overpriced snacks at the cafe and the expensive souvenirs in the shop – conveniently located on the only path to the car. It’s a tourist trap though so as long as you know and expect it then it’s fine.
  • It’s cold. Very cold. But it’s an ice castle so this is another thing you should expect and prepare for.

Overall the Midway Ice Castle was a fun experience for us. I plan on waiting until my girls are tall enough for the bigger slides and taking them during a week day. I also recommend going as an after-Christmas activity to drive away the winter blahs.

pinterest image with midway ice castle text information

Stay tuned for more fun activities in Salt Lake City! If there’s any place you’d love for me to try out let me know. I’ll do my best and report back here.

xo

Faith

NICU Stays Aren’t just for Preemies

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Seren was only 1 day early and pretty much perfect in every way. At 7 and a half pounds, she was by far my biggest baby, and had the prettiest dark hair. I wrote about her birth story here. She was a great baby too, she slept much of her first day and was fine laying on the floor and playing as well. I never would have predicted that she would be my baby to end up in the NICU.

But she was a little too purple for our liking so we gave her some oxygen that first night. After that she pinked right up and was great from then on. Her first night she coughed and choked every so often which made us worried. It wasn’t super out of the ordinary and we were staying in contact with my midwife so we figured everything was all right.

The perfect beginning

Her second day on this earth was also pretty perfect. Her two older sisters adored her. We got some fun Valentines pictures since I was going for fourteen days of Valentines. She liked being held a lot and we were just getting into that sweet spot of nursing.

Early afternoon on February 1st she had her second bowel movement. It was the biggest newborn diaper I had ever seen. My sister got the brunt of it and learned the meaning of a ‘blow out’. When I went to change her I was shocked to see it more of a red-black than black like it’s supposed to be.

We took a picture and sent it to the midwife. The midwife called our pediatrician and the next thing. It was stressful to be in an Emergency Room with a newborn. There were definitely people there for the flu. I kept her covered and was glad our wait wasn’t too long.

Suddenly nothing was as I planned

As soon as the nurses saw what we saw they whisked us to a room. Within a short while she was administered a vitamin A shot. At this point I had laryngitis and was struggling communicating with the doctors. Thankfully my dad was with me but he’s hard of hearing so we were an interesting pair.

They quickly decided to give her a blood transfusion and to transport us to Primary Children’s Hospital. We had to step out while they operated and put lines through her umbilical cord.

I remember just being in so much denial, I couldn’t believe that I was an hour away from my big girls in a hospital with my baby girl. I have always had my babies at home because I love not having to rush anywhere or do anything. Staying at home with a new baby is so wonderful and peaceful.

We flew together on the plane

That night we arrived at the hospital in Salt Lake City around midnight. My husband had gone home after she was born so he was already in town. He showed up with Zupas, starbucks, and a green drink from my grandma.

I have a hard time thinking about all of this without tearing up. It’s been a year this week. I am so blessed to have my sweet one year old here with me. When I think of how it could have gone I just have to stop and remember that it didn’t. I have her here. She’s healthy, happy, and the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.

For one week she was in the hospital. They gave her antibiotics and nutrients through her lines. She had to get a PIC line after a few days as well. They ran test after test after test. We didn’t get to hold her for 3 days and then when we could, I still couldn’t feed her.

Shout out to hospital pumps though

I am a crunchy mama. I have my babies at home, I rarely give anyone Tylenol, I breastfeed 12+ months. To have my tiny less than a week baby being given all sorts of things through her lines, not even being able to feed her colostrum, and to not even be able to hold her.

To look at her, she was so healthy. All the nurses loved being with her because she was so alert and seemed so well. It was the most frustrating thing. I had a perfectly healthy baby, that kept bleeding and we didn’t know why!

Despite the tests, x-rays, and many doctors opinions they never found anything wrong with her. She was a full-term, healthy baby that bled from somewhere inside of her for about four days and then stopped.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)

On our sixth day in the hospital she was discharged. They gave her the diagnosis of Necrotizing enterocolitis even though the new tests that detect that didn’t actually detect it.

I know she was healed and I know how. I don’t know what made her sick and most of the time I’m okay with that. I’m incredibly grateful for every day I get to hold my baby. For a week we didn’t know if we would go home empty handed or not.

The Lucky Ones

It’s hard because when I started looking for themes for her first birthday I searched for ‘NICU graduates’ first. I got a lot of ‘Preemie Power’ and ‘this many weeks in the NICU’ signs but none of that really fit. My newborn was a perfectly healthy baby that spent a week in the hospital and would have died – if not for the NICU. I am so grateful for every NICU nurse and doctor, for the team that was so careful and efficient in getting her to Primary Children’s hospital, and for my family who took care of me when I forgot to.

But it is still hard despite all the ways we were lucky. It’s hard because even though I stand here, a year from then, with a happy healthy baby it’s hard to shake that ‘I almost lost you’ feeling. Every so often I’ll talk with a mom who also had a scare and it feels so comforting to not be alone for a second. We are the lucky ones, with the babies that came home, with the babies that don’t have lasting health problems. We are the lucky ones who panic at the slightest scare, who stress about the smallest bump, worry about the littlest fever.

We are the lucky ones. But we don’t forget and we try not to remember.

xo

Faith

Thank you for letting me be vulnerable. Please know that PTSD is very common after a child’s NICU stay. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help. If you don’t have a good support system, reach out. I’m here for you. There are others willing to be there for you.

Natural Home Birth Story: Seren

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When I started out with my third baby our lives were in the middle of huge changes. Moving states, starting/changing jobs, new babysitters, and more. Getting pregnant and having a baby seemed like a huge challenge I couldn’t possibly undertake. I won’t even give any energy to explain how a “surprise” pregnancy can happen. It just does. It does often.

This was my choice to create her and so it was my responsibility to nurture and care for her. I took my prenatal, drank lots of water, and stayed moderately active. Other than that I think my mind refused to acknowledge that I really, truly had to give birth to this child.

With this sort of denial I convinced my husband I would have a natural home birth at my parents house, thirty minutes from the nearest town, alone with him and my mom. I was confident in my ability and confident that as an ex-EMT he could handle any surprises. This would be my third natural home birth so I wasn’t a newbie by any means.

Denial is the best way to begin labor

Luckily, my husband was not in denial and made sure we had a back up plan. We actually called a retired midwife (who delivered my brother years ago) to see if she would provide back up if necessary.

With my others, I did some hypnobirthing and other preparations to prepare me for birth. With this one, I told myself that she could just as well stay in forever. Or at least until I was ready to have her.

About a week before she was due I headed up to Idaho with plenty of luggage for the next two weeks. She was due February 1st, I was determined to keep her in there until that day.

Ready, Set –

I drank raspberry tea with my second and that really works to create contractions so I made sure to do no such thing with this baby. That is, until the night of the 30th and I figured I should maybe start priming my body. I’m not going to say that’s what put me into labor, but I mean I went into labor hours later.

Anyway, shortly before midnight I crawled in bed with my two older girls. I had some practice labor before so it wasn’t concerning me. I laid and played a few levels of a game on my phone, a glutton for punishment as ever. By the time I put my phone away my contractions were getting a little regular. I managed to fall asleep and so my partially conscious brain knew I wasn’t in labor.

Labor!

Sometime after midnight my younger girl woke me up and I realized my contractions were much harder. After we all settled down again I realized I wasn’t going to be able to get to sleep. I got up and wandered around the dark house. I used the bathroom and realized I didn’t want to wear any clothing. This is a sure sign of labor for me.

I called my husband and said he could get on his way. He was a four hour drive away so if my contractions stopped in an hour, he could go home and only have driven for 2 hours. If they kept on longer then he better keep on coming.

Eventually, I got in the tub and it was bliss. In hindsight, I would have stayed there and labored by myself and had the baby that way. So if I have any word of advice in this whole thing is – if you get in a tub and it feels amazing DON’T get out until you either have the baby or it’s 2 hours later and nothing has happened.

But my parents convinced me to get out because I didn’t want to have the baby without my husband, right? Well, I had decided that I was going to have this baby at 5:00 because surely he would be there by then. On his way up he called the midwife and had her head there too. She was an hour away. The poor midwife, taken out of retirement and woken at three in the morning. Bless her and her husband.

My sister was the real MVP

Meanwhile I was laboring by myself. I know I was yelling and ranting a lot. My sister says I said I was never having another baby again. I also know that I refused to let anyone touch me (except my sister) or check me to see how I was laboring.

My dad kept saying I wasn’t close, I wasn’t going to have the baby soon because I wasn’t having contractions often/hard enough. I wish you could have seen my eye roll.

We also ended up talking to my midwife while I was going through transition. I told her I was but she didn’t believe me because I wasn’t ‘loud’ enough. I’ll tell you if I’m not in transition.

Anyway, long story short I pushed when I wasn’t supposed to, didn’t let anyone tell me what to do, walked around, got in the tub, and did whatever the heck I wanted until my husband got there. I knew I was ready, I had already felt the ring of fire once. I could have done it all by myself but I was waiting.

Just after five I was on the bed again and everyone knew it was time but – both my first and second babies got stuck on my ridiculous tilted pelvis. I couldn’t do it, not again. I couldn’t push past the ring of fire more than once, I couldn’t deliver the head without the body again.

Spoiler: she was born right after 5 like I planned

But I didn’t really know how to explain this to everyone. To my husband I said, “I can only do this once. I can’t do it again.” And he said, brave man he was, “You only have to do this once. Just one push.”

In my head I prayed, “Heavenly Father, please help me do this.” I pushed once and out she came. I wanted to watch this time and I was sitting up so I did. It was exactly as I wanted. She had a head full of dark hair and she was nice and chunky.

Pro-tip: Clary Sage

I usually have a difficult time with my placenta. This time was no exception but I had done some research beforehand. I had recently learned about clary sage. I had my husband get it out when I was struggling and it took one whiff and I delivered the placenta. Basically, it’s magic.

Overall, the labor was about six hours (placenta included). I pushed longer than I needed to but it was because I wanted. Everyone else thinks I only pushed about three times.

Education is Key

I actually enjoy reading other people’s birth stories because I love the diversity. I also think the more you know the more you can prepare. With my first baby I was pretty darn naive, despite the research I did. I also had a pretty peaceful birth. However, she got stuck on my pelvis and caused terrible tears. The pain of the actual birth is what stayed with me. With my second I had no such naivety. I had hope for a good birth but expected a difficult one, which I got. She also got stuck but didn’t cause any tears.

When everyone tells you that all you have to do is push past the ring of fire and you’re done – and then you have to do that twice? That’s hard. It’s the absolute hardest part of the labor and doing it twice feels impossible. With this baby I had no hope or expectation of an easy, painless delivery and birth. But in hindsight, she was the easiest and least painful of my births. She was also my biggest baby at 7 and a half pounds.

I think the mind is incredibly powerful and I think you can believe yourself into having a beautiful birth. I think since I simply skipped thinking over the birth except that I knew I would have her on my own terms, I gave myself the confidence to do it my way.

I’m glad for that because it made recovery easier. This was important because despite the birth being picture perfect, we spent the next week in the NICU. Next week I’ll post that story.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear about your birth story in the comments below!

xo

Faith

PS I delivered at 5:20. Merely 20 minutes after I said I would.

Personal Reflections for 2020

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I started the 2010 decade with a couple of rough years and I ended it with a couple of rough years. I don’t like to be vulnerable but I think it’s important to be transparent. The last decade was full of depression, anxiety, and disappointment. But I did have the best year of my life in the last decade – so far. 2020 is going to beat it.

mommy blogger faith at mother in the mountains

Change is hard for me

and in 2017 a lot of changes began to happen. My husband moved for work so we were in a long distant relationship from fall 2017 to spring 2018. I finished up my last few semesters of school while my girls (2 years and 6 months at the time) had to go to daycare for the first time. Then I interviewed and landed my first job out of the house in four years and then we moved, twice, in one summer.

Smack in the middle of that upheaval I started out with my baby. She was born in January of 2019. Even though she was unplanned and came at the most tumultuous of times, I know she came at the right time. Of course we ended up in the hospital with her and truly thought we were going to lose her for a horrific week.

After that, I stayed home for the next eleven months, just me and my three girls. Last year was full of adventures and fun but 2020 will be better.

2019

The calm after the storm and most days I was still trying to find my footing. I felt completely uprooted and off-kilter for a long time. I’m just now realizing how much I am still dealing with the emotions leftover from 2017/2018.

In the weeks before this new decade started I realized that I had too much left in my heart from the past. I spent a lot of time on reflections for 2020. There was little room for the present and no room for the future. I spent a lot of time thinking over the past few years; taking responsibility for my parts and forgiving others for their parts.

Personal Reflections for 2020

I have moved on. This decade will be full of the present looking forward to the future. I love remembering all the fun times but the past is not somewhere that I want to live.

My words for 2020 are forgiveness, presence, and patience.

The words I am going to carry with me into this next year are, “I can do all things through Christ.” Philippians 4:13

I am tired of being too busy, too sad, and too overwhelmed. Only I can determine how my future will be, I write my own story.

I’m excited to see what this year will bring and I hope you will follow along with me. I would love to hear some of your personal reflections for 2020 in the comments.I was lucky enough to be mentioned in these posts along with other great bloggers you should follow into this year.

xo

Faith

Peppermint Mocha Cheesecake Recipe

     motherinthemountains      1 Comment

For the last four years I’ve had to avoid peppermint because, #breastfeedingproblems. You know what I mean. But this winter I have been celebrating everything peppermint! Hence this peppermint mocha cheesecake recipe. Peppermint and chocolate are just meant to be together, put them in a cheesecake and it’s magic. The perfect kind of magic for the holiday season!

Crust

The process is pretty simple, especially if you have a stand mixer but a hand mixer will work just fine. Prep your crust first by mixing melted butter and chocolate graham crackers. Then while it refrigerates make the cheesecake mix.

Ingredients and Process

The ingredient list is pretty straight forward: eggs, cream cheese, sour cream, cocoa, peppermint extract, sugar, and instant coffee. Mix cream cheese well, add the rest of the ingredient and mix very well. Pour into prepared crust and bake!

peppermint mocha cheesecake mix being poured into pan

Bake and Decorate

After baking, cool the peppermint mocha cheesecake in the oven for an hour and then in the fridge for four hours up to eight hours. Then take a few minutes to decorate the entire top for the most magical, show stopping dessert for the main star of the dessert table.

finished peppermint mocha cheesecake

Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Peppermint Mocha Cheesecake

Peppermint Mocha Cheesecake

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Additional Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 5 hours

What would happen if a Peppermint Mocha and a Cheesecake had a baby? Pure magic, that’s
what. This cheesecake perfectly balances the flavors of coffee, peppermint, and chocolate into
a delicious and elegant dessert.

Ingredients

  • Crust:
  • 3/4 Cup crushed chocolate graham crackers
  • 1/3 Cup melted butter
  • Filling:
  • 1 1/4 Cup granulated sugar
  • 3 Eight ounce bricks cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 Cup sour cream
  • 1/3 Cup cocoa powder
  • 2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • 2 Teaspoons of peppermint extract
  • 3 Tablespoons of instant coffee
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 Dark chocolate bar, grated

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Spray springform pan and add liner to bottom of pan.
  3. In medium bowl, mix crushed graham crackers and melted butter.
  4. When graham crackers are wet through, press gently into bottom of springform pan. Refrigerate while you make the filling.
  5. For filling: In electric mixer add cream cheese and beat until smooth (no lumps left). Add in sugar while mixer is running on low and cream thoroughly.
  6. Add in cocoa powder, sour cream, vanilla extract, eggs, and peppermint extract and mix.
  7. Sprinkle in the instant coffee. Mix until smooth
    (cheesecakes should have no lumps).
  8. Gently pour mixture into prepared crust.
  9. Carefully place cheesecake in oven, bake 38-40 minutes. Cheesecake should still be slightly jiggly in the middle.
  10. To prevent falling and cracking, turn oven off and let cool in the oven for one hour.
  11. Remove cheesecake refrigerate for 4 hours. Once cool, garnish cheesecake with grated chocolate, crushed peppermint, and whipped cream.
© motherinthemountains
Cuisine: Dessert / Category: Desserts

xo

Faith

Winter Bucket List for 2019/2020

     motherinthemountains      1 Comment

I am so excited to share this winter bucket list! With less than a week until Christmas (and Hanukkah starting in a few days) I’m sure everyone has done lots of holiday traditions and activities. Unfortunately, for those of us that live in the snowier states winter will continue on for at least another two months. The dark and short (but thankfully getting longer!) days are cold and boring.

I personally really struggle with the winter blues. February is generally the toughest month for me. It’s a good thing it’s such a short month. March typically signals the end of the cold and wet. Getting through January and February can be a chore so I wanted to share what helps make my winter a little more bearable.

Winter Activities!

This winter bucket list is short enough that you can make it a goal to check off all the activities by the end of the winter! Pick a day of the week that you’ll schedule the bucket list activity for and then watch the cold days fly by. I did my best to pick non-holiday themed activities, that way you can start now but continue on into the New Year.

Some of my favorite winter activities are the ones that actually don’t require going outside. Curling up with hot chocolate, tea, or cider and a good book is definitely one of my favorite cold day activities. However, it is important to get outside sometimes too and planning a weekend activity with the family will keep the winter from feeling too gloomy.

I hope this winter bucket list makes the colder months more fun!

Here’s a good soup recipe for the soup cook off

Plus a good cookie recipe for the treat making day

Have a wonderful winter

xo

Faith

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