We were at Aspen Grove from Saturday evening til Friday morning.
We stayed in one of the big, family lodge cabins. It had a main living room with a small kitchen, four bedrooms and three bathrooms on the main floor. The upstairs had four more bedrooms, two bathrooms and a loft with bunk beds. Shelley and my family shared a bathroom upstairs, Marcie's family got their own bathroom, Christopher and Jael shared a bathroom with the four boys who used up a bedroom across from theirs. My parents had their own bathroom and I think David and Abbey had their own too, but I can't really remember. When we came 20 years ago, Elder Groberg was there with his family in one of these lodge cabins. My mom had asked to see inside and was amazed that anyone could be so lucky/rich as to stay in such a huge cabin. It was really sweet to see her tear up as she walked into ours this time. She had "arrived"!
We ate all our meals in the cafeteria. The kids were in hog heaven with endless soda, Captain Crunch and dessert! The moms were in heaven not having to prepare meals or clean up. Feeding the toddlers was still work, but who's complaining?! Definitely a vacation from feeding everyone at home!
On Sunday, it was raining, so we couldn't go to the normal sacrament meeting outside. They squeezed everyone inside instead, and about 3/4 of the way through the meeting, the fire alarm went off. No one moved. One of the leaders finally got up to tell everyone that it was probably a false alarm and just wait. A few minutes later they announced it was a real fire in the elevator and to please calmly move to the exits. So much for safety!! Nothing major seemed to happen and they reconvened in the cafeteria, but we just went to our cabin and had our own lesson!
That evening they had a fireside out in the amphitheater and a movie for the older kids.
Monday through Thursday the kids would go to their age groups in the morning, break for lunch with us, then go back to groups for a few hours in the evening! It was wonderous. Tanner wasn't a big fan of going to the toddler group, but the girls in charge were so sweet and I decided it was good for him. While the kids were gone, the adults could go listen to speakers in various classes, try pottery making, archery, painting, swimming, rock climbing, do a ropes course, mini golf, play paintball or play sports on any of the many tennis, badminton, basketball, volleyball or pickleball courts. I think we tried it all!
Baby Madeline's duck lips on fleek!
I really enjoyed listening to the speaker, Kerry Muhlestein, a professor at BYU who is basically a genius and does excavations in Egypt. He spoke about life in the time of Christ, the tribes of Israel and the Last Days. One interesting thought he shared that I'd never considered before was that since Israel was scattered throughout the world because of their disobedience, they can now be gathered and bring everyone else with them. He also said that the patriarchal order isn't fathers through sons. It's families governing the gospel. I wish I could take one of his classes at BYU!
One night they had a talent show in the amphitheater and we did our Christmas dance! Christmas in July! We definitely stole the show and had people complimenting us the rest of the week!
Such a good sport taking the loft beds with the giant, ceiling to floor windows that let dawn's first light in!
I beat him twice, haha! He probably let me win. :)
Who wants to get old?! Mountain biking when you're nearly 60 must be his way of following the prophet, haha.
Jael deserved a prize for coming with a two week old baby. Sweet Enzo!!! I could not snuggle him enough!!
One night, we got a game of BUM going. Craig taught us, haha! You basically play doubles tennis but if you lose the point you have to kneel down with your bum in the air and the other three players get to try and serve the ball across the court and hit you! Travis nailed David one night when just the guys were playing and they could hardly talk about it without falling all over each other laughing. I don't think anyone got pegged quite as hard when we played, but it sure was hysterical and a little nerve racking, when you lost!!
At night, after the kids were down, we stayed up in the living room talking, eating popcorn and playing games. Mom's hair always won.
On Wednesday, the kids stayed in their groups all day so we had a longer chunk of time to adventure with! They guys were talking about going mountain biking at Sundance Resort and that sounded more fun than shopping in Provo, so I weaseled my way in and dragged Shelley with me! And then I had to beg her forgiveness because it was AWFUL!! The trail was SO STEEP. I thought it would be a good workout, but all it was, was holding onto the handlebars for dear life, laying on the brakes and bracing yourself for a life-threatening wipeout. OK, maybe not life threatening, but definitely wrist or leg threatening! Yikes!! We literally went down the mountain once and that was enough! Not worth the potential injuries when you're going home to four kids. We felt bad turning the bikes in so soon, so we tried to find some other trails to bike on, then ended up going out to the highway and huffing it up the mountain. Now THAT was a workout!
Then, we met up with Abbey, Marcie and Mom who were just walking around and got some lunch at a cafe.
Wednesday night, disaster stuck. Or E.coli. Who knows. Weston apparently was up all night barfing. Poor thing. So that effectively ruined our plans for Thursday. And it was the 4th of July! I had planned and bought cute, patriotic shirts for all of us and we never even got a family picture. As we were walking into the cafeteria for lunch, Tanner suddenly just barfed all over the floor, right in front of the entrance. Ughhhh! Another one bites the dust. At this point we wondered if we should just pack it all up and go home. We didn't want to spread it and who knew how many of our other kids would start throwing up? We finally decided we may as well wait it out. Maybe it would be a 24 hour bug. Driving home with puking kids had to be worse than staying inside our room at the cabin with puking kids. I guess that's debatable. We found out later that many other families there that week came down with a stomach bug. And apparently it's pretty common in general! Aspen Grove must be the petri dish of Mount Timpanogas. Blaming it on all that family dining with little hands touching all the food serving handles!
The camp leaders put on a really nice morning program. The trumpet solo was so beautiful. I had no idea a trumpet could even be beautiful. The counselors all sang a song and we said the pledge and raised the flag. I had tears in my eyes. We are so blessed. How did we get this gig? Living in such a prosperous and peaceful time. But at the expense of so many lives who came before us. I said a prayer of heartfelt thanks and hope all those soldiers and their families somehow, someway felt it.
I have no idea what Grandma is doing. I would say, getting "grounded", but she's on cement, so who knows. Months later, when I was in sacrament meeting, Tanner was looking at pictures on my phone and came across this one. He stopped, stared at it, then in his halted, 2 year old language started, "Grandma"
I said, "Yes that's Grandma"
But I had interrupted him.
He continued, "DIED." Then put it together again more forcefully, "Grandma... DIED!"
I quickly switched the picture! Remember, we were in a quiet sacrament meeting! That kid! Or I should say, that Grandma!! Hahaha.
Toddler group BEFORE the puking started. Gosh, I hope no one else in this group got contaminated!
I was so bummed that Travis and Weston had to miss Stadium of Fire. Tanner missed it too, but let's be honest, who wants to take a two year old to massive crowds on a late night? Mom and Dad bought everyone's tickets and it was so much fun! We ate Cougar Tails and BYU Creamery ice cream and screamed our heads off (or just I did) while dancing to Keith Urban. The fireworks show was like watching a 30 min. finale of a normal fireworks show. It was just incredible. And so nice listening to all the patriotic songs while they were going off. The guy who opened for Keith played a cover of "Old Town Road" which became such a hit and was all we heard the rest of the summer. Leaving that place was heinous. I was driving so that added to my stress. I think it took us over two hours to get back to Aspen Grove.
Friday morning! Time to say bu-bye!
Our attempt at a group picture with our shirts earlier in the week flopped, so here's to take two!
Then we walked across campus and up the hill to where the A-framed cabins were that we stayed in 20 years ago. Here it is! Still standing!
My parents took a minute to talk to us about that last trip and their feelings about getting to bring everyone together for this one. They were very emotional and how could our hearts not go out to them. Here they had spent lots and lots of dollars treating us to a week long vacation and they were just so thankful we CAME! It was humbling for me to remember where we started so long ago and where we are now. My dad is the hardest worker I know. He's been up against a lot. My mom has struggled as well. And has sacrificed so much of herself for us kids. And marriage isn't easy. I'm so grateful for the examples they've set for us. I'm so grateful they're still married. They've created a wonderful, ever growing family and we owe them our worlds. I hope we can each live up to heritage they've gifted us.
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