Aspen Grove

The last few days of our August Utah trip we spent at Aspen Grove, a family camp run by the BYU Alumni Association.  We'd never done it before, so we figured we'd give it a shot by attending their "mini-camp", which is just four days long, as opposed to the whole-week regular program.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday morning, and it was awesome.  I hesitate to recommend something that always sounded so dorky to me, but Aspen Grove is almost the perfect vacation for families with little kids.  They provide classes for the kids from 9:15 to 12:00 and again from 1:30 to 4:30, including the babies.  I wasn't sure how well that was going to go, but Connor and Elise loved their groups.  
      

Connor's group (the "Kittens") met for pickup after each session at this bear statue.

      
The counselors are all super-sweet BYU students, and we couldn't have asked for better people to take care of Evan.  He basically had his pick of slaves to take him on walks, play with him, and put him down for naps the whole time he was there (he's still at the age where he has no problem with strangers.)  I'd stop in to check on him and nurse, but we were pretty much free to do things as a couple during the day.  We played badminton, tennis, racquetball, frisbee golf, did archery (at which Ryan excelled), rifle shooting (at which I excelled), and a bunch of other goofy stuff.  We even tried the climbing wall, and Ryan did the high ropes course.  I was pretty impressed.  There was no way I was going to do that.  
     

    

       
Meals were all served in the cafeteria, which was super kid-friendly.  The food wasn't great, but it was definitely low stress.  The evenings had surprisingly fun family activities, including contests (here we are trying to roll a giant ball around orange cones, and attempting to knock other cones over with frisbees.)  
       

        
They did a cool "Cowboy Village" night full of western stuff like tomahawk throwing (at which Ryan also excelled - must be the Indian blood), crafts, treats, and this sword-fighting game for the little boys.  Yeah, I know cowboys didn't have swords, but they didn't seem to care much. 
        

       
The final evening they held a little show where the kids presented songs they had been practicing in their group classes.  Elise's class dressed up as the seven fat cows and ears of corn from the "Pharaoh's Dream" song in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I expected her to be shy, but she marched up there and did her little dance with enthusiasm.  Connor's class didn't have costumes, but they sang and did actions to the "Benjamin" song from Dreamcoat.  It was super cute. 
         

Trompers, Trompers are the best, goooo Trompers!

It was raining like crazy that night, so everybody is bundled up

My favorite little fat cow

Watching the show with one of Connor's friends

After the show there was a family dance in the cafeteria.  The kids started out hyper, but quickly deteriorated to overtired, so we went to bed.  
    

   
We're definitely going to go back someday, although I'm not sure we could handle the full week.  Connor and Elise were exhausted by Saturday from the activities and the heat and the lack of naps.