Aspen Grove

One of our highlights this summer was going to Aspen Grove Family Camp in Utah. We had a family reunion this summer with Jeramy's family. His grandparents surprised us all and paid for their children, grandkids and great-grandkids to go together. There ended up being about 80 of us. It was soooo much fun!!! What a wonderful place to go for a family reunion.

They had so many fun things for everyone of every age to do. Every day we would eat breakfast at 8:00 and then at 9:15, drop our kids off at their class. They had classes for kids of every age - newborn up through young adults. Then, at 9:15 we were free to go do whatever we wanted until 12:00 when we would pick up kids and eat lunch. Then at 1:30 we took the kids back to class until 4:30. And one of the days we were there - the kids stayed at their classes from 9:30-4:30. Then we'd eat dinner and in the evenings they had movies playing in the amphitheatre, talent shows, badminton. My favorite evening activity was a stop at the Aspen Grove Store for some BYU Creamery ice cream and/or a big pink cookie.

The kids would hike, swim, do arts and crafts they even got to climb the rock wall. They all had a great time getting to play with their cousins and do so many fun activities - BUT not as much fun as the adults!!! We hiked, did paintball, ropes course, archery, air rifle, hung out at the pool without kids :), pottery (NOTE: Jeramy and I and took a class together on the pottery on the wheel and it was so not like Ghost!) They had great guest lecturers like Susan Easton Black. Some people went tubing down the river and did some biking. It was fantastic! You didn't have to worry about a thing. You knew exactly when and where you were going to eat (the food was decent) and there were so many options for activities, there wasn't enough to fit it all in. I would highly recommend it - especially if someone else pays for you!

Jeramy on the paintball course

The most memorable thing I did that week was the ropes course. I thought I'd be a bit nervous, but I was terrified! You started on the pole with notches (on the R) then had to stand on top of the beam and scoot over to the rock wall part. I don't have any pictures of me doing it - they're probably all too blurry from me shaking so badly. Also, there's no way I'd post a picture of my rear-end from that angle - it was not pretty!!! This is my brother-in-law Eric.


The view from the backside of the the rock wall. Once you got to the top, you stood atop the platform then made your way through the rope course around the trees.

My brother-in-law Eric making his way through the ropes course. I thought the pole and rock wall would be tough and wasn't at all worried about the ropes part. But for me that was the hardest part. I could not stop my legs from shaking and then it would shake the ropes and make me more stressed. It was tough but I'm so happy I did it. I had no idea I would be that scared!

Ella, with her cousin Miles, getting ready for her turn on the rock wall.

She did so great! She didn't seem scared at all - she was a lot more brave than I was!

We only left the camp once during the week - just
a quick trip down to the BYU campus. I love going back - we
have so many wonderful memories of our time there.

The last night at camp, the kids did a program. Each class did a

little cheer and then performed a song

Ella's group did "The Twist" She was twisting her little heart out
with her cousins Matea (l) and Amelia (r)


Ella with her AWESOME group leaders, Erin and Blaine.


Ice cream obsession!

One last picture before we left the camp :(

Thirty minutes into our long drive home, Finn threw up EVERYWHERE. After we got him all cleaned up and stripped down, he seemed pretty happy. Luckily, he didn't get sick anymore on the trip - he just screamed at us a lot to get him out.