the Alpine Slide and other feats of skill

Several months ago when I was obsessed about moving to Europe and would religiously watch the travel channel whenever they had anything to do about Europe, there was a show where they were in what I believe was Switzerland. Or maybe Austria. Any way, one of the countries that can claim part of the Alps mountain range there is this slide running down the side of the mountain, and you ride a ski chair lift up to the top of the slide and ride a bobsled down. They called it the "Alpine Slide".

There is a strikingly similar slide just minutes from the Salt Lake valley up in Park City, also called the Alpine Slide. I had gone there several times as a kid. (Back home in AZ I have a super-awesome picture of myself riding it- and by "super-awesome" I mean ridiculously dorky-maybe someday I will remember and in a moment of desperation of nothing better to blog about, I'll post that.)

Huh. The name "Alpine" makes a lot of sense now. I wondered why they called it that, not a Rocky Mountain Slide or something. Apparently they borrowed the idea and the name from the Swiss. Or the Austrians.

My kids thought it looked fun, and begged me to take them there should we ever make it as a family to Europe.

I told them I'd do better than that- I'll take them when we go to Utah.

Zach chickened out at the last moment, so I took the older two while my mom watched the younger two at the bottom.

My camera (with all my vacation pics) fell out of my pocket and dropped the 50 to 100 feet to the mountainside below. (I have no sense of distance) I hiked up to the spot it fell, and after remembering I was looking for a black camera instead of a silver one, I found it. It still works. The battery compartment door is a little munched, but I'm not complaining.
The slide was fun, Zach was sorry he chickened out, but got to ride the merry-go-round with Christopher instead.
I let the older two practice their flips on the bungee thing. They had fun, but Nick said it was the most painful wedgie ever.
Zach convinced me to let him try the rock wall. He got all of three feet off the ground. Each person was supposed to get two chances to make it to the top, and since Zach obviously wasn't going to need a second chance, the guy running the thing was really nice and let Nick use Zach's second chance.

At the end of the day we all had fun, but learned several lessons.-

First and foremost, I learned to hold my valuables on the chairlift.

Zach learned he wants to try the Alpine slide next year when he gets a second chance.

Nick learned the bouncy thing hurts.
Also, I learned Christopher needs one of those child/leash/harness things. His penchant for running off is getting tiresome.