The Perfect Escape

 On Wednesday morning, we had to eat a good breakfast because it was high adventure day! This was the only day the kids would be in their groups from breakfast to dinner. We found out when we got to Aspen Grove that some parents leave on Wednesday to go shopping, go to the temple, or float the Provo River, but we were able to fill our time right there "on campus."

Eli lived on soda and soda alone the entire week.

We didn't want to run away on Wednesday because there was a hike that morning we were interested in doing. It was beautiful and I had a fun time chatting with everyone while we were trekking along. 

The boys paused for an intentionally awkward family photoshoot. 

We made it to the top!

Then we were shocked to see our kids were right on our tails! I hadn't realized they would be doing the whole hike that day also, and then to see that they did it so fast was quite impressive! 

When we got back to camp, we found the Stompers were on a little hike of their own, venturing all the way across camp in a tidy little line. 

We went straight from our hike to lunch, to our tennis tournament. Jeff and I went up against a couple close to our same age. They were cute and it was fun to chat with them, play against them, and humbly lose to them. We rushed from that to pottery. Pottery was in an open room sitting over a stream, so you couldn't beat the ambiance! 

Straight from pottery to archery. Wednesday was a busy day!

I got a bullseye!

Jacob yelled out, "Hold up how many bullseyes you got." 

Right after dinner it was time for the ropes course. I was anxious to get on the ropes course. It seemed super fun and it was an activity I had missed while I was sick Monday. 

I was very excited. 

Perhaps too excited. I was sure I would love the ropes course but I actually thoroughly did not enjoy the ropes course. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be and my anxiousness to participate in the course quickly turned into anxiousness to be back on steady ground. It was fun to try, but difficult in execution. 

Back to the pool for a nice evening cool down. 

Thursday morning started as a bust. It ended up raining, so a lot of the activities were closed. We were scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. Finally, I suggested we try out the escape room I had made for girls' camp. I threw it together right before we left and I wanted people to try it out to see how difficult it would be for the girls to solve at camp. I needed some guinea pigs!

It was super fun for me to watch them try to put all my clues together. I came up with the whole escape room all by myself, so I really had no idea if people would be able to put it all together. It was so satisfying to watch them solve my riddles! 

Ben is the escape room master, so I especially delighted in watching him work through my clues. 

The sun came up just long enough for us to take a few slips down the giant slip-n-slide.

The boys got very creative and did all sorts of tricks down the tarp. There were planks, barrel rolls, and a couple flying squirrels. We almost didn't do the slip-n-slide because it was cold and we didn't want to get wet, but we very spontaneously decided to give it a go. We were glad we did because this turned out to be Jeff's favorite activity of the week!

Another highlight of mine was the nonstop wallyball we did at the end of the week. Wallyball was one of the few dry activities in the rain, so we hunkered down in here and spent the night facing off against each other. 

Friday morning was time to go. Jonah said goodbye to his Stompers room one last time. (He was happy to do so. He had a strong start in Stompers but started feeling like the days were a little too long in there by the end of the week.)

All the other kids loved their groups and the things they did. This is Eli's group (minus Eli. He ran off before they took the picture).

Madison, Claire, and Lincoln had an intense game of house going on every evening on one of the playgrounds. They would play until dark every night. 

The old cousin lineup +1. 

Was Aspen Grove better than Disneyland? Does Disneyland have babysitting? Does Disneyland feed you all your meals? Does Disneyland have outrageous crowds? Is Disneyland in the serene mountains with crisp, cool air, a welcome break for a Vegas family? 

This really was my dream vacation. It was perfect. I loved it and I may even be tempted to choose it over Disney as my new favorite family getaway. 

Parent Trap Paradise

It was while I was at Aspen Grove, laying in bed after a long night of involuntarily emptying the contents of my stomach that I clicked on an Instagram story of someone I follow who said, "You know what? I would love it if I was at a summer camp like The Parent Trap and I could just stay there for a week or two. That's my dream summer vacation." 

And I thought, "She's right! That's my dream vacation, too! And that's exactly where it feels like I am!" Though I was strictly confined to my room at the time...but more on that later.

It all started innocently enough. With food. A cafeteria full of food. That no one in our family had to prepare. Unless you count mixing your own Lucky Charms and milk as preparing food, because there WAS plenty of that going on. Also plenty of fountain drinks being refilled, even during the breakfast hours. It was a dream come true for everyone. 

Jacob had kicked us into planning this trip a year and a half ago, and we've been anxiously awaiting our visit ever since. We weren't sure what the week would bring us, but we were excited to experience a highly anticipated week at Aspen Grove. 

One of the most appealing parts about spending the week at Aspen Grove was that the kids were all broken up into age groups and got to spend the week doing activities on their level with friends their age...also meaning the parents would get a little alone time to be with people THEIR own age and doing activities on their level. Fun for all!

The first night the kids broke out into their ages and met their counselors. They came up with a cheer and performed their cheers. Jonah was SO PUMPED to get on the stage and cheer for us that he began the cheer 2-3 times before the rest of the group was finally ready to join him. He nailed it! 

They put on some music once the show was over and invited the kids on stage to dance. Jonah eagerly jumped on the stage. I hadn't realized he was such a performer, but he managed to steal the show! The next day, Jonah said to me, "Mom. Did you know I'm the best dancer here?" You may be tempted to say he had gotten a big head from his night on stage, but he was just spitting facts.

The rest of the kids were also super cute in their cheers, and right away it became obvious that the college students assigned to our kids for the week were fun, positive, adorable, and up for the challenge of being our kids' sole source of entertainment. I loved the counselors!

We spent the evening playing some games, enjoying the playground just outside our cabin, and settling in. Then the next morning was Sunday and it was time for church! Newland and Carson were adorable waiting for church to begin, singing songs together from the hymn book. 

My Dad threw out the idea to have every sibling design a t-shirt, so that's how we ended up with five different shirts this year. My Dad put on all the shirts and removed them one by one in the order we would be wearing them for the big reveal. 

Ben and Haley's/Monday:

Me and Jeff/Tuesday:

Jacob and Laurie/Wednesday:

Abe and Newland Klarissa/Thursday:

Dallas and Becky/Everyday:

We quickly learned the magic of Aspen Grove is there is ALWAYS something to do. There was nine square, gaga ball, tennis, pickleball, mini-golf, a game cabin, basketball, wallyball, several playgrounds so on and so forth. AND it was a surreal Utopia where kids could freely wander because there weren't tons of people there, and the people who were there were families just like you, so the kids felt confident and safe to manage themselves in their free time. It was dreamy in every way you could imagine. 

It was almost like the only thing that could go wrong at Aspen Grove was if you happened to get sick during your time there. Perhaps if you happened to be puking your guts out from the hours of 3:00 AM - 8:00 AM in a tiny, cramped cabin bathroom in a shared area with 30 other sleeping people.

Worse yet, our cabin didn't have wifi, so I was stuck largely staring at the bees scaling my bedroom window, wondering what fun everybody else was up to. Sadly, I was missing out on a parenting lecture taught by a BYU professor which I would have really enjoyed. Jeff had to spend the day solo, but he dutifully reported back to me on everything I missed. 

I was feeling a little better by afternoon, so I snuck outside to watch (from a safe distance) the group participate in "The Aspen Follies."

I didn't last too long before needing to go lay down again. I heard the eruptions of excitement outside as all the kids shot off homemade rockets. 

The kids took their first dip in the pool that evening. 

Then it was time for the talent show. My Dad has a little dad joke presentation he would often do when we were kids called "finger acrobatics." He recruited several other family members to join him on stage to back up his act. The audience ate it up!

Brooke showed an animation video she made which was also a delight. 

By Tuesday morning I was feeling much better. I had made it through 24 hours without incident, so I was free to rejoin the group. Yay! I came in guns a-blazing, ready to make up for the day I had missed. 

First on the docket was laser tag. 

We spied these little cuties in their class trying out the climbing wall. 

Next up was the escape room. 

There were two escape rooms, exactly the same, so it quickly became a heated competition to see which team would break free first. My mom was climbing under tables, scaling the walls, and dissecting every trace of evidence we could find in our cabin to come out on top. 

It paid off! We were victorious!

While I may have been on the winning team in the escape room, the Thomas Family was never part of the winning team for any of the tournaments we competed in. You could face off against other families in various sports. This was all of our first time playing wallyball, so we maybe should have practiced a little bit before pinning ourselves up against the resident experts. 

When I heard the evening's events were titled "Frontier Night," I was unenthused. I once had a negative attitude at a trek my mom made me go to as a teenager that forever tainted my view of the pioneers and all things associated with them. I don't love the leg wrestling. I don't care for the wagon pulling. And I certainly could do without the buffalo chips. I was a very harsh critic going into the evening's events. 

However, they started us off with arguably one of my most favorite things in the entire world -- SNOW CONES! Way to ease me in, staff, but I'm still onto you. 

There were some whips. 

Some guns.

There were some axes. 

A little lassoing. 

A lot of cousins.

And a nonstop choo-choo-train that brought the whole thing home. Frontier Night ended up being my favorite event of Aspen Grove. I loved it! It felt like a super fun little carnival all for us that wasn't overly crowded, all the employees were awesome, and the activities entertaining. Well done, AG! I tip my cowboy hat to you. 

Jonah won most rides on the train...by a long shot. It was the only thing he did and the counselors were so cute to make it special, fun, and welcoming for him every single time. 

My favorite part was when the train drove past a counselor who was pretending to be a bank robber. Every time Jonah would put his hands up, freeze, and make this face until we were safely past the ruffian. 

The babies were on a nonstop train ride as well, with Grandma and Grandpa as their trusty conductors. 

Just when I thought the evening couldn't get any better, it was topped off with two little dudes in full character. 

Every night ended in Becky giving us our full schedule for the next day...just so we could ask her all through the next day what we were doing and when. Ha! It was fun to sort through our activities every night and get excited for another day of adventure!