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!