Midway Family Getaway!

For one of our Family Gifts to the kids, we surprised them with a little Stay-cation up in Midway, Utah the day after Christmas. Midway is located up by Park City. 

 We love getting away as a family and some of our most memorable vacations we have taken have been Stay-Cations. A month prior to going to Midway, I had found a great deal on Groupon.com for a Family getaway for four. The deal included a two night stay at the Zermatt Inn in Midway and it included passes to swim in the Homestead Crater (a geothermal spring hidden within a 55 foot tall beehive-shaped limestone rock). 

  The Crater formed when melting snow on the Wasatch Mountains seeped deep within the earth. Two miles below the surface, the earth’s interior heated the water. As it percolated upward, it picked up minerals, which were then deposited on the surface -- eventually forming the volcano-shaped limestone deposit called The Homestead Crater.

 So On Thursday we headed up to Midway for our Getaway. We arrived in Midway around 5, got checked in and then headed to dinner. After dinner we went back to the room to play games and watch movies.

On Friday Morning, we woke up and after a big breakfast in the cafe at the Inn, we took the kids to Solider Hollow to tube down their big snow hills. None of us had ever been to Solider Hollow before,  but I had heard how fun it was from some friends who take their kids every year and wanted to give it a try. 

We had a blast tubing with the kids. Karmindy was too small to ride down the hills by herself so she went down with either Mark and I. I don't think she left her tube the entire time we were there (2 hours). She had either Mark or I pull her around. Silly Girl. Besides sledding down the hills, the kids loved being pulled up the hill by the big tow ropes. It was nice to not have to walk back after sledding down the hills each time.

We had a blast tubing with each other and enjoying each other's company!

After sledding we went back to our room, got dressed in our Swimming Suits and headed to the Homestead Crater, which was located across the street from where we were lodging. The crater was like nothing I had ever seen.When you walk through, you head through a cave like space which opens up into the crater. The crater was very warm and the air inside the crater was very humid. After getting life jackets on, we made our way to the Crater to swim. It was a really neat place to swim. It was tinier than I thought it would be but was fun. It kind of had an eery feeling inside because it was so small and hot. The kids had fun swimming and so did I. Although, it did take Kaleb some time to warm up to being inside such a tiny area. There were quite a few people swimming while we were there and it made the small space even smaller. I don't like small, tight spaces too so I was a little nervous. It was a really neat experience to go inside the crater and swim. There were also divers while we were there that would dive down to the bottom of the crater. It was interesting to hear about the history of the crater. Apparently, Miners back in the 1800's would go and swim in the crater to relax their sore muscles. Also, divers have fond many cool antiques, guns and other interesting artifacts in the bottom of the crater. 

I am so glad we were able to take the kids up to Midway and enjoy some of the amazing scenery and fun activities that Utah has to offer. I love living in such an amazing area/State that has so much fun history to learn about.

We can't wait to go back next year and go tubing as a family and maybe swim again in the Crater.