Aspen, Colorado

The first few days of summer, I packed up the kids & drove all of us to Aspen, Colorado to meet up with Trek's parents & a few of his siblings & their families.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  I was proud of myself for driving the 6 hours to & from CO too.

Trek's sister, Tylee, had rented a house for the week & we all got to meet up & have fun together with cousins, aunts, uncles, & grandparents.  Some family came the first day & left early, some came later & stayed later, & some stayed the entire week.  We drove in on Wednesday morning & left early on Saturday morning so I could get back to take care of my dad who needed considerable help due to his cancer.  I know it was only for a few days, but we loved every minute of it.

I think Bladen's favorite part was dinner that first night.  He LOVES food.  He loves trying new things, eating his favorite things, & exploring different types of foods.  I got a delicious kung pao chicken while he ventured out & got a big steak with veggies.  The rest of the kids got pasta.  It was a delicious restaurant.

And of course, we HAD to get ice cream afterward.

The time we were there, Tylee signed all of our kids up for Aspen summer day camps.  Her 2 daughters were in different camps.  Canyon, Bridger, & Ella were together in a camp, & then all the teens were together in a camp.  They did all sorts of things at these camps. . . climbed to the top of the Rockies to play in snow, water balloon fights, hikes, exploring, trampoline jump parks, paintball, & mountainboarding.

My teens were obsessed with mountain boarding.

And of course we got more ice cream each day after camp.  I think the kids loved that.

The house we were staying at was amazing.  It had the main house (with 2 huge kitchens, lots of bedrooms, a wonderful living room, pool table, & more), a guest house (with 3 more bedrooms & bathrooms, a built in bar, & ping pong table), a pickleball court, a soccer field, a volleyball area, a POND with kayaks, & more.  The kids had a blast playing in the creek & pond, & exploring everything it had to offer.

While the kids did their day camps, the grown ups went & explored Aspen (the city) & drove up to the highest part of the Rockies in that area.  There was snow everywhere & it was VERY cold (& kind of hard to breathe too).  It was fun.

We had a great time & loved being with family.  We love our family so much.  It was hard to say goodbye.  I'm so glad we took the time to go even if it was only for 3 days.  The kids had a blast & look forward to being together again soon.