Aspen Grove 2012

I think the first time my family went to Aspen Grove was when I was maybe 8? We used to go every 4 years. Then we moved it to every 2 years, and they only time we missed was while my parents were on their mission. Good reason. We LOVE it. It's a BYU Alumni thing (I beileve...) but I think anyone can go. Most people are LDS. Kase got to come this year, so that was exciting for me!

It's the most wonderful family vacation for the price. They take care of EVERYTHING. You can choose your living situation depending on how much money you want to pay. Our first year we stayed in the nice lodges, but it's been the cheap A frame cabins ever since. I have some great memories there. We usually go the same week as the Fennegans, Daltons, Colemans, Kruegers, and now the Roberts and many more families that used to or still do live in Dallas. There are family activities, age groups for kids, sporting events/tournaments, religious classes, ropes courses, and so many activities I couldn't try to name them all if I tried. So here are some pictures from the week. Needless to say, Kase loved it. We are hoping to convince the Wells side to go at some point. Everyone would love it! Although it's probably not super fun when you are a young single adult. There aren't too many of those around. But I guess if you're with family, you'll still have a great time. Here are some pictures:

Because Dad wasn't able to be at my wedding, I wanted to get my daddy daughter dance. At my wedding reception, I had a wonderful surprise of him singing the "Butterfly Kisses" song to me. We had always talked about dancing to that song at my wedding, and because he wasn't able to be there to dance with me, he sang it and played it on the guitar for me and recorded it. It was so wonderful. So I danced with my brothers (all except Bryce who was on his mission) during his recording. So anyway, I thought that the Talent Show at Aspen Grove would be a great time to show off his wonderful musical talents (his recording) and for me to get my daddy/daughter dance. So that's exactly what I did :)

He had been emailing the family, asking who was going to represent our family in the Talent Show. I told everyone I would, but never told anyone what I was going to do. So when it was my act, I went and told the crowd just that, and said that I was going to be sharing my Dad's talent and called him up on the stage. He, of course, was hesitant and I guess turned around and said to the family, "is she serious?" But as he was walking up, I explained what I was going to do. It was so nice. The time limit for an act was 3 minutes, so they only played 3 minutes of the 5 minute "song" (my dad does some talking as well). So of course the best verse, the verse where his daughter gets married, was cut off. But it's ok - I got my moment and that was what I wanted. Some people in the crowd were crying and had some nice things to say afterwards. Maybe it was a nice little break from all the little kids acts of silly songs and what not. Great moment to share with my daddy :)

We did a Romney family hike up to the waterfall, where you get a beautiful view of the mountains and all of Aspen Grove.

 

We also did some a family paintball tournament. This is us, hearing the rules. I was the only girl who did it, and the team I was on lost :( maybe due to that, but mostly because it was a bad idea to have Kase and Brandon on the same team. They dominated. Kase made me laugh so hard...right after they said "GO," he barrel rolls over an obstacle, like you see in the movies. He said later that was a bad move...landed right on his rear end and didn't feel too great. Said he got a little over ambitious. Doesn't sound like Kase at all....

I got shot in the hand by Brandon. It hurt bad, so then I was chicken from then on. When I finally got up the courage to go for the flag (more so because it was "my turn"), Kase got to it before I did, and it got it onto their side of the course. I then decided that there was no way I was going after that thing. I did shoot Kase in the booty one time after he was shot with the flag and was walking back to start over. Probably not the nicest thing to do, but I was "unaware" of all the rules at the time. I did feel bad about it later, mostly due to his battle wounds, shown in a picture below.

There is an afternoon where all families (who want to) participate in the Aspen Follies. It's just a bunch of games outside that families of all ages can participate in. Our family always dominates (or tries), since we have older kids and can be a little competitive :) We've won the past few times we've gone. This year we got 2nd or 3rd or something...so we were basically losers. We are so mean - we try to McGuyver the games the whole time, redoing games if we need and prying ideas and answers to questions out of the person leading the game, so we can get the highest score. All the families are just trying to have a good time with their young kids. But we are vicious, trying to dominate everywhere we can. The weak ones aren't allowed to participate :) haha.

The above picture is us doing our "cheer." You have to have a family cheer that you do before you play each game. We did the same one as we have previously done. "From the window to the wall, when the big dogs start to crawl, all the families bawl!" It's a spin off of an old rap song. Yes, we are the "Big Dogs." I think Kase is even doing the actions in this cheer.. :)

We made Brad get in the water bucket this year. He didn't help too much, considering he couldn't even fit in the bucket. But I'm sure the boys enjoyed throwing freezing cold water on him. There may or may not have been some intentional water blows to his face, haha.

As Carli says, "Poster for Childhood!"

Aspen Grove is beautiful! So is this family :)

One of the things we love most about Aspen Grove is all of the sports. The boys played together on 3 on 3 and 5 on 5 basketball teams. Luckily Carli got this picture of Brad, or else I wouldn't have any pictures. We also did a family volleyball and wallyball team. I tried to compete in ping pong but didn't get too far, ha. Some did tennis. Bryce and I did a Dance Dance Revolution tournament (he won...). We were the only ones to show up in the whole camp, ha. We did a bunch of stuff. It's so fun. Unfortunately the boys didn't take it all in basketball (the Coleman/Fennegan/Dalton clan did make it higher than we did, but didn't beat us directly), and I don't think we won anything. Oh well. But it was a lot of fun :) Kase lost a toenail with all the basketball playing. I forgot to mention that the basketball court was outside on a tennis type court, which make a difference with which shoes you play with, apparently. So he brought the wrong shoes. Oh well. You can also see one of his battle wounds from paint-balling. I felt bad about the huge welt on his tushy that I gave him :(

Thanks to Carli for taking most of the pictures! I was so sad we didn't get a family picture with our Romney shirts on. We made them specifically for our reunion. Oh well. An especially big thanks to my dad for helping with the cost of the entire thing. A HUGE help! The late night conversations and games were so fun. Kase was able to get out of those somehow :) ... but he had some good conversations with Brad about finances, credit cards, and investments. He is starting to understand the little game our family plays more and more as time goes on. It was great to have him there, and for him to get to know my family a little better. I was excited for that. Him and Brandon definitely bonded in the sports category. We had a family meeting where Bryce shared some of his life, struggles, lessons with us. He has always been the "best kid" in the family according to me, and he continues to inspire and be a wonderful example to me.

This is definitely the last year we will be staying in A frame cabins, and the families with children are not willing to those anymore. I don't blame them :) We have now officially decided we are going back in 2014. So exciting! It's so fun. Some families were saying their kids choose this over cruises and Disney Land. Awesome.