Aspen Grove

Last week we were able to go on a family vacation to Aspen Grove. Aspen Grove is a family camp that is operated by BYU in the mountains near Sundance. We have gone as a family twice now and have loved it each time. James' family has been going since his mom was a teenager. We are enjoying keeping the family tradition alive.

While at Aspen Grove the kids are each assigned to a group with other kids their age, even Bella had her own group to go to. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy a vacation without hearing the kids whine about being bored and having nothing to do. They were kept busy doing their own things and the grownups are allowed to have their own fun, and fun we did have...

On Monday James, his parents and I went paint balling. It was James and I versus his parents, and once you got over the fact that you were shooting your parents it was a blast. James and his dad each ended up with around 12 bruises on their bodies from being hit, James had three on the top of his head, including one the broke the skin. Mom had several really large ones as well. I ended up with only two as I stayed back and had fun just shooting, I was able to hit mom several times in the face (she had a shield) to block here shooting of James.

On Tuesday we went shooting again, this time air rifles, and that was a blast. I did fairly well and even got one bulls eye. The goal was clustering your shots, and except for the bulls eye, the rest of my shots were well clustered. James did very well on his shots as well. We also had some fun later on Tuesday racing RC cars. James' mom and I each were able to nail the car that we were chasing. I did spend much of my time though trying to keep my car on the track.

On Wednesday we went down to Provo and spent the day at BYU and eating lunch at the Brick Oven, oh how I have missed a good Brick Oven pizza, nothing can compare.

Thursday we spent the day finishing arts and crafts, swimming and talking with family.

All in all James and I had a blast. Now for the kids...

The kids were able to go on hikes, go swimming and have lots of play time with their groups. On of the highlights for MacKayla was the climbing wall, she made it about halfway up and loved it! Annika loved going swimming and making lots of new friends. Arabella on the other hand loved nothing more than when mommy would pick her up from her group, she was not happy being left for so long. They said that she was happy and played, but all I ever saw was her crying as I left, and crying when I came to get her.

Before we checked into Aspen Grove on Saturday we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The museum is one of our favorites! The kids absolutely love dinosaurs and this is the largest dinosaur museum around.

On Friday after we had checked out of camp we went over to BYU to the Bean museum to see the animals they had on display. While I was a student I had gone to the museum and thought it was fun, but nothing all that great. What a change has taken place, the museum is awesome now. They have stuffed versions of tons of animals and it was a lot of fun. In some ways it beats going to the Zoo as we got to get really close to the animals and really see what they were like.

So here are some photos of our time at camp...

The girls at the dinosaur museumMacKayla the junior paleontologistAll of the kids, except BellsDigging for buried dinosAnnika the Paleontologist

MacKayla and her cousin Ben getting into their harnesses to go climbing

She's ready to climb like a proNo fear, she made it halfway upGreat form :)
The whole family together, I love how my kids are the ones who look like they are being tortured

James' parents and sister, aren't they cute

We are a happy family

The Wammacks all together

Aunt, Uncle and their family, I love the chessy grins on the kids
Another Uncle, Aunt and cousin, they are so cute

MacKayla and her trademark smile

Bella actually showing off a smile

Annika and her cute funny smile

The girls at the Bean Museum

That is one ferocious lionThis was one of the coolest displays, the burrterfly is made out of real butterflies