The way Jared describes Apen Grove to everyone is that it is a scaled down cruise. It's like a cruise in that all meals are provided and activities galore are planned, including break-out groups for kids, but it's not the five-star service you would get on a cruise.
I thought they did a great job on the schedule. There was a good deal of time for kids to be with their groups making friends and doing age-appropriate stuff, but there was also a good amount of family time scheduled in. Aspen Grove totally caters to families and I was really happy with the amount and quality of family time we had.
The first day we were there, they had the kids go to their groups. I was a little worried because I knew Brita and Leah wouldn't be together since Brita was a teenager and Leah wasn't even twelve at the time we were there. But they both had great attitudes and Leah ended up knowing one of the girls in her group (the graddaughter of some people in our ward who were there with their kids and grandkids - Neil and Loralee Thompson who are super fun and sweet people). I was impressed with Brita's attitidue to give it a try. We got there on Saturday and by Sunday after church Brita was done with her group. She didn't click with anyone and it broke my heart when she told me that she was the first one in Sunday school so she chose a seat and as everyone filed in, no one sat by her. Why do people do that???!!! If anyone would have gone out of their way just a tiny bit, they would have found out that Brita is an awesome kid. But then again, she didn't go out of her way either. Probably because it took all of her courage just to check out the group in the first place. Even though it hurt that she didn't feel included, I actually really enjoyed having her hang out with me and Jared for the remainder of the week. She is really fun to hang out with - I love her sense of humor and she added a sense of spirit and fun to us boring old parents.
The highlight of the week for me was that I didn't have to prepare any meals. No kidding. Super serious. And the food was pretty good, although even Jared who isn't picky about anything he eats even commented that he just couldn't take one more serving of salad toward the end of the week. They made us wash our hands in this big outdoor sink and even though we had just made everyone wash before we went in for our first meal, the girl made us wash again where she could see us. I guess even parents can't be trusted to be responsible.
We ate in a big cafeteria and the girls loved having access to unlimited juice, soda and hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate machine actually got a lot of use because it got kind of cold while we were there. Cold enough that it actually snowed one day.
The day after it snowed was hike day. We dropped Meg off to spend the day with her group while Jared, Brita, Leah and I hiked up Timp as far as we could go until an iced over area stopped us. We got about halfway, but this is what the trail looked like when we set out
Yup. That's right. We couldn't even see the trail. It was covered up with weighed down bushes and trees. We had to duck under a lot of snowy tree branches on our way up but by the time we came down everything had melted and it was beautiful. We had a bit of a rocky start because it was snowy, muddy, and wet - not exactly what some people had envisioned. But we ended up having a great time and we got some fun photos of our hike. Gosh that's a beautiful mountain.
On Sunday they had church at their outdoor ampitheater. I especially appreciated the sacrament. It was quiet and I listened to the wind rustle through the trees and birds chirp. Such a peaceful, beautiful setting. I love that God gives us so many beautiful sights and sounds and interesting things to touch and feel in nature.
We stayed in the Aspen Lodge which was just behind the amphitheater. We thought it was a great location because we were close to the activity hub.
Our accommodations were just regular hotel rooms and we got two adjoining rooms. We've stayed in enough hotels that I knew we'd need two rooms in order for all of us (especially me) to keep our sanity if we were going to be there a whole week. It turned out to be a really smart idea. We all do so much better when we have our own designated spaces and a little more room to spread out. I really loved that during the week we played lots of games. The girls complain at home because I don't play games with them much, but aside from the fact that games aren't my favorite thing, at home there is so much more to distract me and occupy my time. The girls really liked playing this Rush Hour game I brought from home. I didn't realize that it's a one-person game, but they liked watching each other and taking turns.
Inside the Aspen Lodge was a little general store where we loaded up on plenty of ice cream and treats. Meg and I had a special date one night when Jared and the older girls were playing pool and ping pong. I didn't know that a medium was three scoops but she didn't complain! I didn't complain either when I got to help her finish it up at the end.
I kept buying bags of bulk candy for the kids and for some reason I ate most of it myself. They finally hid their bags from me. Smart kids!
In the back room of this store they had a bunch of board games we could check out too. I think we checked out monopoly and kept it out on the table in our room for a couple days before we finally finished playing it. I loved how so much of the programming was centered around families.
There's still lots more to tell so I'll wrap up the rest in another post.
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